Toon Boom Harmony 11.1
Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)1

Toon Boom Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

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

22Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

Contents
Toon Boom Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)
Legal Notices

1
2

Contents

3

Chapter 1: Traditional Animation - An Introduction

7

Chapter 2: Scanning

9

The Scanning Process

10

Scanning and Importing Drawings

11

Custom Vectorization Parameters

19

Options Tab

20

Help Tab

22

File IO Options

22

Registration Options

22

Filtering Options

23

Options for bitmap that has no registration information

25

RGB Keying Options

25

Colour Vectorization Options

25

Bubble Usage (implemented only for colour vectorization's line art)26

4 Colour Vectorization

26

Creating a Vectorization Style

27

Setting the VectOptions.conf File

28

Setting the VectOptions.conf File on Windows and Mac OS X

29

Setting the VectOptions.conf File on Linux

31

Chapter 3: Timing

35

Preparation

37

Frames39

Creating Drawing Elements

42

Layer and Column Concepts

42

Layer and Column Types

43

Advanced Column Types

46

Adding New Drawing Elements

46

Deleting Layers and Columns

50

Layer and Column Properties

52

Modifying Layers and Columns

53
3
3

Toon Boom Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone) Contents

Duplicating Layers and Columns

56

Cloning Layers and Columns

56

Adding an Annotation Column

57

Drawing and Typing in the Annotation Column

58

Changing the Drawing Settings

60

Displaying Tick Marks

61

Importing an Annotation File

62

Linking External Files with Timing Columns

63

Filling Exposure

65

Filling Exposure Mode

65

Typing Exposure

66

Holding Exposure

68

Extending a Single Exposure

69

Extending an Exposure Sequence

70

Dragging Cells

70

Increasing and Decreasing Exposure

73

Deleting Exposure

75

Inserting Blank Cells

76

Setting the Exposure

77

Filling a Selection with a Single Exposure

78

Filling a Selection with a Sequence

79

Filling a Selection Randomly

81

Filling Empty Cells

82

Creating Cycles

83

Managing Drawings

87

Renaming a Drawing

87

Deleting a Drawing

88

Duplicating a Drawing

89

Copying and Pasting Drawings

89

Merging Drawings

92

Modifying the Layer and Column Display

94

Expanding and Collapsing Layers and Columns

94

Showing and Hiding Layers

95

Showing and Hiding Columns

97

4
4

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

Modifying the Look of the Column

99

Drawing Identification

101

Xsheet Thumbnails

104

Changing the Colour of a Layer or Column

104

Setting Scene Markers

106

Setting Tempo Markers

109

Printing the Xsheet

110

Chapter 4: Colour Styling and Colour Models

113

Preparation

114

Colour Model Storage

114

Scene Creation

114

Colour Model Scene Structure

115

Setting Up the Workspace

115

Naming116

Working with Palettes

119

Palette Lists

120

Palette File Storage

123

Element Level

124

Scene Level

124

Palette Backup

124

Creating a Colour Palette

124

Duplicating a Colour Palette

128

Cloning a Colour Palette

129

Importing and Linking Palettes

131

Colours136

Adding a Colour Swatch

137

Colour Display Modes

143

Copying and Pasting Colours

144

Mixing Colours

145

Painting the Model148

Sharing the Colour Model

150

Chapter 5: Ink and Paint

153

Preparation

155

Dirt Clean Up

159

5
5

Toon Boom Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone) Contents

Art Layers

162

Creating Strokes

168

Painting

170

Painting Using the Paint Tool

171

Advanced Painting Features

172

Selecting a Colour in a Drawing

176

Importing Models

177

Editing Gradients and Textures

181

Closing Gaps

186

Protecting Colours

188

Respecting Protected Colours

188

Highlighting the Selected Colour

188

Inverting a Colour Selection

189

Inking the Lines

190

Verifying the Zones are Painted

195

Ink and Paint Tool Properties

198

Ink Tool Properties

198

Paint Tool Properties

199

Lasso and Marquee

200

Painting Modes

200

Paint Mode

201

Paint Unpainted Mode

201

Repaint Mode

201

Unpaint Mode

202

Paint and Remove Texture

202

Apply to Multiple Drawings

202

Apply to All Visible Drawings

203

Respect Protected Colour

203

Use Stored Colour Gradient204

Select Newly Painted/Repainted/Unpainted Contours/Lines

204

Automatic Close Gap

204

Glossary

206

Index

217

6
6

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

Chapter 1: Traditional Animation - An Introduction
Harmony is a high-performance animation software which not only offers a wide range of features, butalso handles more than one animation type and workflow. In this guide, you will learn how to performtasks related to the traditional animation workflow from start to finish using Harmony.
Before reading this guide, be sure to take some time to familiarize yourself with the basic concepts in
the Fundamentals Guide. Each chapter is self-contained. so you can concentrate only on the chapter
pertaining to your task. You do not need to read the entire guide, but you should read the wholechapter before starting to work.

Topics in this section:•

Scanning on page 9•

Timing on page 35•

Colour Styling and Colour Models on page 113•

Ink and Paint on page 153
77

Toon Boom Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)88Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

Chapter 2: Scanning

Once your traditional animation sequences are completed and cleaned up, you are ready to scan andimport them in Harmony. The scan process is the point where the traditional production becomes
digital. It is the moment where you use Harmony to control the project.
This chapter is divided as follows:•

The Scanning Process on the next page•

Scanning and Importing Drawings on page 11•

Custom Vectorization Parameters on page 1999Chapter 2: Scanning The Scanning Process

The Scanning Process
There are three steps in the scanning process which Harmony handles automatically:•

Vectorization•

Line art and colour art creation•

Optical registration

You can choose the following vectorization styles, which are set at the vectorization step:•

Solid lines•

Texture lines
This keeps your texture from the original drawing and applies it to your vectorized drawing as a
bitmap filling zone.

Harmony receives images from any TWAIN device, such as scanners or digital cameras. These images
can either be loaded as bitmaps into your scene or converted into vector-based images that can beedited using Harmony.
You must install a TWAIN driver for your device in order to access its contents. Refer to the
manufacturer of your device to get a TWAIN driver. Once all the animation layers are scanned in, you
can set the timing in the digital exposure sheet.

10Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

Scanning and Importing Drawings
Once your scene length is set, you can start scanning drawings and importing them into Harmony in
one of the following ways:
A bitmap image is an image composed of pixels that are both size and resolution dependent. In
Harmony, you can scan an image as a bitmap drawing.
You can turn bitmap images into vector drawings, while maintaining the sketchiness of a pencil line orinto vector images with a bitmap fill. Both options can add life to an animation, which straight
vectorization with smoothing does not usually afford.

How to scan images as bitmap drawings
1. From the top menu, select File > Import > From Scanner.
The Scan Drawings window opens.

2. Select your scanner from the Scanner list.

3. In the Layer section, decide if the scanned or imported image will be placed on a new layer orexisting layer.
‣

Create Layer: Scans or imports the image into a new layer. Select one of the following
options:

11

Chapter 2: Scanning Scanning and Importing Drawings

Parameter

Description

Create Single Layer Named

Creates a layer you can name.

Create Layer(s) Based on Filenames

Creates a layer based on each unique filename prefix. For
example, the filenames a-1.tga, a-2.tga and b-1.tga will create
layers named "a" and "b", where "a" has two drawings and"b" has one. When creating a single layer from these three filenames, all three drawings will be inserted in the new layers.

‣

Add to Existing Layer: Scans or imports the image into an existing layer. Select a layer fromthe Layer list. You must scan into the same layer type if you are using an existing layer.

‣

Create Symbol for Acquired Items: Encapsulates the bitmap image in a symbol. To mix
bitmap images with vector drawings on the same layer, the bitmap image must be
encapsulated in a symbol and vice versa. Symbols will also be automatically added to the
Symbol folder in the Library view.

4. In the Import Options section, select one of the following:‣

Keep As Bitmap: Retains the imported image as a bitmap. In the Alignment section, decideon the size and placement of your image within the camera frame. Depending on the Scene
Settings (the height and width in pixels that you chose for your project), an image that you
import may get scaled to the point where all its individual pixels become visible. There arethree options available in the Alignment section:

Parameter

Description
Enlarges or shrinks (but not distorts) the image height tomatch the full height of the scene grid.

Fit

If the image orientation is landscape, this will enlarge or
shrink (but not distort) your image width to match that of thescene grid.

12Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

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

Pan

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

13

Chapter 2: Scanning Scanning and Importing Drawings

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

Project Resolution

Note that the Project Resolution alignment rule is equal to
the As Is rule in the layer properties.
‣

Import As Bitmap Drawing: Imports a bitmap drawing into a vector layer where you can
edit the image using the drawing tools. In the Alignment section, select one of the following:

Parameter
Vertical Fit

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

14

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

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

Horizontal Fit

Actual Size

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

5. In the Drawing Options section, set the following options if desired:‣

Drawing Name: Name of the drawing to import.

‣

Hold Value: Type the number of frames that the drawing will be exposed.

15

Chapter 2: Scanning Scanning and Importing Drawings‣

Scan and Advance: Lets you scan one drawing after another every time you click Scan.

‣

Flip Drawing: Mirrors the drawings horizontally and scans it this way.

6. Adjust the Scale control and sliders in the Preview Image window until you are satisfied with theview.

7. Click Scan to scan your drawing.
8. If you are scanning panoramic drawings, in the Page Panning section, move the slider to the next
letter to capture your next frame.

9. If you have more than one drawing, set the next drawing in place and click Scan again. Repeat until
you have finished scanning all your drawings.

How to import and vectorize bitmap drawings
1. From the top menu, select File > Import > From Scanner.
The Scan Drawings window opens.

2. Select your scanner from the Scanner list.

3. Click Preview to get a test scan of your drawing.
4. In the Layer section, select one of the following:‣

Create Layer: Imports an image into a new layer. Type a name for the layer in the Name
field.

16

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)‣

Add to Existing Layer: Imports the image into an existing layer. Select a layer from theLayer list.

5. In the Import Options section, select the Convert to Vector Drawing option.
6. In the Vectorization section, select one of the following:‣

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

‣

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

‣

New Preset: Lets you create a new preset.

‣

Delete Preset: Lets you delete any preset in the list.

‣

Custom vectorization: Lets you set custom vectorization parameters—see Creating a
Vectorization Style on page 27.

7. In the Drawing Options section, set the following options if desired:‣

Drawing Name: Name of the drawing to import.

‣

Hold Value: Type the number of frames that the drawing will be exposed.

‣

Scan and Advance: Lets you scan one drawing after another every time you click Scan.

‣

Flip Drawing: Mirrors the drawings horizontally and scans it this way.

8. Adjust the Scale control and the sliders in the Preview Image window until you are satisfied withthe view.

9. Click Scan to import your drawing.
10. If you are scanning panoramic drawings, in the Page Panning section, move the slider to the next
letter to capture your next frame.

17

Chapter 2: Scanning Scanning and Importing Drawings

11. If you have more than one drawing, set the next drawing in place and click Scan again. Repeat until
you have finished scanning all your drawings.

18

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

Custom Vectorization Parameters
You can create your own vectorization settings with Harmony.
The vectorization parameters you will create here can be saved, shared and also inserted into the
VectOptions.conf file used by the Harmony Scan and Control Center modules when scanning or
vectorizing a series of drawings.
You can use an interface to select and test the different options and you can also type in someadvanced settings.

How to open the Vectorization Parameters dialog box
1. From the top menu, select File > Import > From Scanner.
You can also open it from any other import option that allows you to customize the vectorization
parameters (i.e. from the scanner).
2. Select your file, decide on the layer options, and click Preview.
3. In the Vectorization section, click the New Preset

button.

The Vectorization Parameters dialog box opens.

19

Chapter 2: Scanning Options Tab•

Options Tab below•

Help Tab on page 22

Options Tab
The Options tab contains the main vectorization settings. More settings are available in the Help tab.

Parameter

Description
The input filters are applied to the bitmap image before it isvectorized.
One Pass: One threshold value is applied to both the Line andColour Art. For drawings with distinct vector-style lines ofmattes, you only need one pass.
Two Passes: Applies a different threshold value to each layer.
For greyscale drawings, you may want to perform thevectorization process twice to apply different threshold values
to the Line and Colour Art layers.

Input

Threshold: Determines which values in the scanned image areconsidered part of the Line or Colour Art layer and what will beeliminated from the vectorized drawing; 0% is white and 100%is black. The threshold is between these two values.
Expand Bitmap: Lets you enter a value to scale the bitmap todetect small variations in the line. Use this option if you scanneda greyscale image and want to preserve small variations in the
texture to apply to the line art.
Jag Filter: Lets you enter a value to scale back the bitmap toremove some of the line’s roughness. This is useless when you
have a drawing that appears quite rough; the Jag filter will

20

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)eliminate excess strokes in the final drawing.
The output filters are applied during the vectorization process.
No Colour Art: Does not generate filling zones in the Colour
Art layer.
OutputNo Texture: Does not generate texture in the Line Art in the
final images. Select this option to create solid lines in the final
line art.
Generate Matte in Underlay Layer: Creates an opaque zone
behind your drawing’s lines to avoid seeing through the layers.
Colour as Texture: Converts colour values into a texture layer.
The optical registration options are used to automatically aligndrawings based on the position of the peg holes on the
animation paper. The peg holes must appear in the scanned
drawings for the optical registration to work.
DPI: Lets you enter the dots-per-inch value of your image. You
must enter the same value as the DPI used to scan the image.
Peg Side: Lets you select the position of the peg holes on yourdrawings. Identify whether they are on the top, bottom, left or
right.

Optical Registration

Strictness: Determines how exact the location of the peg holes
must be for the software to recognize them. You have twovalues to choose from:•

Strict: The peg holes must be in a tightly defined area tobe recognized.

•

Loose: The peg holes can be recognized somewhere in alarger area. This is the recommended setting.

Field Chart: Lets you indicate the size of the animation paper;
12 or 16.
The Post Processing filters are applied to the final vector
images.
Remove Holes: Removes holes of a specified value that mightmake painting difficult.
Post Processing

Remove Dirt: Removes stray marks and dirt of a specified
value. Try a value around 500.
Remove Hair: Removes small strokes that have no line art.
Remove Hair: Number of Passes: The number of times thedrawing will be analyzed to identify hair marks.
Close Gaps: Closes gaps in the Colour Art so that you canpaint it.

Miscellaneous

Smooth Passes for Line Art before Breaking Triangles: The
number of times the smoothing operation runs before creating

21

Chapter 2: Scanning Help Tab

the triangles that break lines in your drawing. If unnecessary
triangles are appearing in your drawing, increase this value.
Smooth Passes for Line Art: The number of times thesmoothing operation is performed after the triangles havebeen created. This further smooths the Line Art.

Preview

Show Strokes: Shows the strokes in the Vectorized Imagepanel.
Stroke Thickness: Shows the size of the strokes.

Help Tab
The Help tab contains the most advanced vectorization settings which you type in the Advanced
Option fields at the bottom of the Options tab.

File IO Options-file <filename (including extension)> [ options ]-infile <filename (including extension)>; same as -file-outfile <filename>; alternate output file-informat <format>; the input format. Used if reading from stdin-debug; turn on debug mode
-noforce; don't force output if image is inconsistent-version; print version information and quit
-output_version <version>; output files of this version. Valid versions can be: 0 or 604-force_unamed_palette_for_texture; will generate a texture in TVG's internal palette

Registration Options-register <dpi side strictness>; perform optical registration.

22

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)•

Side can be one of left, right, top, bottom or l, r, t, b.

•

Strictness can be either loose, strict or l, s.

-register_center_peg_holes; will use only round holes in 16 fields page-rcph; short form of register_center_peg_holes-registration_looseness_factor <factor>; registration looseness factor (default 2.000000)-rlf; short form of registration_looseness_factor-rdebug; output registration debug messages-pegpitch <inch (default 8.000000)>; distance between peg bars
-threshr < (default 0.500000)>; threshold for optical registration; range 0.0 to 1.0-rmargin <inch (default 1)>; region size where to look for peg bars
-peg_distance_from_center <inch (default 5.25)>; peg distance from centre of the image-pdfc; short form of -peg_distance_from_center-out_peg_position <side (default same)>; wanted position of the peg on the drawing.
•

Can be one of right, left, top, bottom (or r, l, t, b) or same.

•

A rotation will be performed if it is different from the side passed to -register.

-output_peg_matrix; output the peg transformation matrix on standard output.
-scanner_calibrate; < (default 1.0000 1.0000) > x and y scale factors to be applied to scanner image.

Filtering Options-pixel <pixel_shape (default '4x3')>; Valid values: 4x3-gap <worldUnits (default 10)>; close gaps up to this big-pencil; generate line art only
-keep_dirt; don't filter out dirt
-thresh <threshold (default 0.2)>; range 0.0 to 1.0-rmv_hairs <worldUnits (default 1)> <passes (default 1)>•

remove hairs of size smaller than "size" in "passes" passes-rmv_holes <area (default 7)>; remove holes smaller than "area"-rmv_dirt <area (default 1)>; remove dirt smaller than "area"•

try values between 100 and 500 for rmv_holes and rmv_dirt. The area is in world units squared-rmv_triangles <worldUnits (default 30.000000)>; remove triangles at "pixels"•

distance from each other. Use -no_break to remove all triangles-no_texture; don't generate textured strokes-color_as_texture; will vectorize the alpha channel and put the RGB colour in a textured colour-noclosegap; disable all gap closing algorithms-no_break; disable the breaking of line art-jag_filter <pixels (default 0>; expand the pixels in the vectorization bitmap

23Chapter 2: Scanning Help Tab-expand_bitmap <pixels (default 0>; expand the pixels in the vectorization bitmap-fit_errorc <error (default 1.000000>; fitting error for the colour art-fit_errorl <error (default 1.000000>; fitting error for the line art-smoothl <passes (default 1>; number of smooth passes for line art-smoothc <passes (default 1>; number of smooth passes for colour art-first_smooth <passes (default 0>; number of smooth passes for line art before breaking triangles-first_smoothl <passes (default 0>; number of smooth passes for line art before breaking triangles-first_smoothc <passes (default 0>; number of smooth passes for line art in colour art pass (needs 2pass)-2pass; specify two sets of parameters; one for line art "l", one for colour art "c"(-thresh, -rmv_holes and -rmv_dirt will be overridden by -threshl, threshc, -rmv_holesl,-rmv_holesc, -rmv_dirtl and -rmv_dirtc)-threshl <threshold for line art (default 0.5)>; range 0.0 to 1.0-threshc <threshold for color art (default 0.5)>; range 0.0 to 1.0-jag_filterl <pixels (default 0>; expand the pixels in the vectorization bitmap for line art-jag_filterc <pixels (default 0>; expand the pixels in the vectorization bitmap for colour art-expand_bitmapl <pixels (default 0>; expand the pixels in the vectorization bitmap for line art-expand_bitmapc <pixels (default 0>; expand the pixels in the vectorization bitmap for colour art-rmv_holesl <area (default 7)>; remove line art holes smaller than "area"-rmv_holesc <area (default 7)>; remove colour art holes smaller than "area"-rmv_dirtl <area (default 1)>; remove line art dirt smaller than "area"-rmv_dirtc <area (default 1)>; remove colour art dirt smaller than "area"
try values between 100 and 500 for rmv_holesl, rmv_holesc, rmv_dirtl and rmv_dirtc. The values arein world units squared-margins <inch (default 0.25)>; remove margin around bitmap-top_margin <inch (default 0.25)>; remove margin at top of bitmap-bottom_margin <inch (default 0.25)>; remove margin at bottom of bitmap-left_margin <inch (default 0.25)>; remove margin at left of bitmap-right_margin <inch (default 0.25)>; remove margin at right of bitmap-remove_peg_bars; remove the peg bar holes-field_size <fields (default 12 or use value in scan file)>; set the drawing to this field size
-fs; short hand for -field_size-peg_bar_size <inch (default 1)>; the size of the peg bar region-noframe; do not put a frame around the colour art-frame_fields <default -1.000000>; put a frame of the specified dimension around the colour art

24Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)-downscale_input <default 1>; downscale the raw input by this integer factor-downscale_texture <default 1>; downscale the output texture by this integer factor-buildmatte; generate a matte on underlay for line test
-buildmatte_colourart; generate a matte on colour art for line test
Note: -buildmatte and -buildmatte_colourart are mutually exclusive-copystrokes; copy original strokes when building matte.

Options for bitmap that has no registration information-pixel_margins <inch (default 0)>; remove margin around bitmap-top_pixel_margin <inch (default 0)>; remove margin at top of bitmap-bottom_pixel_margin <inch (default 0)>; remove margin at bottom of bitmap-left_pixel_margin <inch (default 0)>; remove margin at left of bitmap-right_pixel_margin <inch (default 0)>; remove margin at right of bitmap-dpi <(default -1)>; dpi information of input bitmap

RGB Keying Options-rgb; generate separate zones for red, green and blue lines-rgb_alpha <value (default 255)>; generate red, green and blue colour with alpha of this value-no_red; ignore red colour in vectorization-no_green; ignore green colour in vectorization-no_blue; ignore blue colour in vectorization-flatten; flatten the drawing after generating colours-rmv_rgb_dirt <threshold area default 0.0>; remove red, green and blue regions smaller than area
-expand_bitmap_rgb <pixels (default 0>; expand the pixels in the vectorization bitmap for rgb-threshrgb <value> <threshold for rgb vectorization default 0.200000>;-threshsv <saturation threshold default 0.500000> <value threshold default 0.500000>; thresholds onsaturation and value to consider a pixel to be grey

Colour Vectorization Options-color_vectorize; perform a colour vectorization-file2 <colour art filename>; specify the colour art bitmap-penstyle <center alpha (0.0-20.0)> <edge alpha (0.0-20.0)> <gamma (0-10)><centre pressure effect(0.0-1.0)> <edge pressure effect (0.0-1.0)><texture bitmap downscaling (0.2-20)> <texture bitmap
file (valid filename or "" if no file)>; generate brush texture for the line art-pressure_variation <strategy (0, 1 or 2)> <min pressure (0.0-1.0)> <max pressure (0.0-1.0)> <maxvariation (0.0-1.0)>; specify a pressure strategy for the centre line.
-blur_radius <pixels (default 0)>; blur the penstyle texture generated

25

Chapter 2: Scanning Help Tab-color_contour_smooth_passes <times (default 3)>; perform number of smooth passes on contour
before computing texture-ccsp <times (default 3)>; short for -color_contour_smooth_passes-color_rmv_holesl <world units (default 0.000000)>; remove holes of this size when computing
texture-color_fill_holesl <world units (default 0.000000)>; fill holes of this size for colour line art

Bubble Usage (implemented only for colour vectorization's line art)-create_bubbles; add bubbles into the LineArt. Implemented for colour vectorization only
-bubble_gap <value (default 3)>; max number of colour art points between 2 bubbles-bubble_length <value (default 10)>; max number of circles in a bubble-min_radius <value (default 1.5000)>; min radius of a circle in a bubble relative to the line thickness(must be >= 1.0)
-max_radius <value (default 3.5000)>; max radius of a circle in a bubble relative to the line thickness(must be >= 1.0)
-uniform_gap; the space between bubbles is constant

4 Colour Vectorization-4colours [key:value] ... [key:value] ; The key value list can be empty. The list of keys is:
rgbdiff:value ; between [0.0-1.0] or [0-255]
dark:value ; between [0.0-1.0] or [0-255]
grey:value ; between [0.0-1.0] or [0-255]
white:value ; between [0.0-1.0] or [0-255]
dirt:value ; dirt area. 200 is a good value
rt:value ; between [0.0-1.0] or [0-255]
gt:value ; between [0.0-1.0] or [0-255]
bt:value ; between [0.0-1.0] or [0-255]

There must be no space between the colon and the key/value. For example: -4colours
rgbdiff:20 dark:20 grey:120 white:250 dirt:200 rt:240 gt:240 bt:240

The Vectorization Parameters dialog box lets you vectorize pencil drawings, along with any red, blue
or green pencil marks you may have used to indicate highlights and shadows. The drawing will be
vectorized into pure red, blue, green and black (RGB values), while creating colour art zones whereverlines connect. After painting in your tones and highlights, change your pure RGB colours totransparent (0 Alpha) in the Colour Picker window and watch the indicator colour zone lines
disappear.

26

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

Creating a Vectorization Style
With Harmony, you have the possibility to create custom vectorization parameters that can be saved
and reused.
You can vectorize drawings using one of the following methods:•

Black and White: All the lines become vector based and 100% black. The white areas becomecompletely transparent.

•

Greyscale: All the lines preserve their initial textured look in grey shades as a bitmap image
contained inside a vector frame. The white areas become completely transparent.

•

Four Colours: With the advanced parameters, you can isolate the red, green, blue, and blacklines and turn them into 100% vector lines, preserving their original colours—see Custom
Vectorization Parameters on page 19.

How to create or modify the vectorization parameters
1. Set the different options available in the Vectorization Parameters dialog box.

27

Chapter 2: Scanning Help Tab

2. Click the Vectorize button to update the Vectorized Image preview.
The vectorized image is just a preview. The actual vectorization happens when you click OK in the
Import Images dialog box. There are many options to try in the Vectorization Options dialog box.
These are applied during the vectorization process.
3. To set advanced parameters, read the information on the Help tab, then type in the Advanced
Options field at the bottom of the Options tab.
4. To save your vectorization parameters to reuse them later, share them, or use them to set the
Harmony Scan module vectorization style list, click Save.
5. In the Browser window, name and save the file.

6. To save the current settings as your default settings, click Save As Default. To restore the default
settings, click Restore Defaults.
7. To load a vectorization style, click Load and locate the existing *.vof file.
8. Click OK.

Setting the VectOptions.conf FileToon Boom Harmony Server uses a file called VectOptions.conf to get the vectorization stylewhen batch vectorizing a series of drawings. A series of default styles is available in this file, but you
will certainly want to create your own to fit your production style.
This section deals with setting the VectOptions.conf file on:28Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)•

Setting the VectOptions.conf File on Windows and Mac OS X below•

Setting the VectOptions.conf File on Linux on page 31

Setting the VectOptions.conf File on Windows and Mac OS X
How to set the VectOptions.conf file on Windows or Mac OS X
1. Open the vectOptions.conf file:‣

Windows: Select Programs / All Programs > Harmony 11.1 > Tools > Configuration
Editor.

‣

Mac OS X: Select Applications > Harmony 11.1 > Tools > Configuration Editor.

The Configuration Editor window opens.

2. In the bottom section of the window, select the VectOptions.conf tab.
3. Scroll down the VectOptions.conf file to see all the different options available for creating yourcustom vectorization style. These options are the same as in the Vectorization Parameters dialog
box. It is recommended that you create your vectorization style using Harmony and the
Vectorization Parameters window and copy the result parameters in this file—see Creating a
Vectorization Style on page 27
4. Scroll down toward the bottom of the file to see the default styles. You can modify them or add
new ones to the list using the parameters you got using the Vectorization Parameters window.
Notice that some of the lines have a “#” sign at the beginning to indicate that the line is a commentand will not appear in the style list. The lines that have no sign at the beginning appear in the style
list.

29

Chapter 2: Scanning Help Tab

5. To create a new style, type the following below the existing styles:
style_name:
This should be followed by the name of your new style. For example: style_name: BlackLines.
6. Under the style name line, type the following:
options:
7. Copy and paste the information in your *.vof style when saving your settings in the Vectorization
Parameters window.
‣

To open the *.vof file, use any plain text editor application.

8. In the Configuration Editor’s top menu, select File > Save.
9. If you have Toon Boom Harmony Scan on your computer, you can start the application and verify
that the new style appears in the Vectorization Style list under Edit > Vectorization Style.

30

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

If you are using the batch processing method available with Toon Boom Harmony Server
to scan and vectorize your drawings, the selected style must be available on all themachines included in the batch processing list.
Refer to the Control Center Guide to learn more about setting up and using batchprocessing.

Setting the VectOptions.conf File on Linux
These are the two methods used to edit the VectOptions.conf file on Linux.
•

Using the “vi” text editor•

Using the “gedit” text editor

How to set the VectOptions.conf file on Linux using the “vi” text editor
1. Open a Terminal window:
Menu: Applications > System Tools > Terminal
2. Open the etc folder inside the installation directory:$ cd /usr/local/ToonBoomAnimation/harmony_11.0/etc
3. Change your user to "root":$ su‣

If your user is part of the sudoers list, enter the following command and go to See "Openthe 'VectOptions.conf using the "vi" text editor:" on page 31:$ sudo vi VectOptions.conf

4. Enter the "root" password.
5. Open the 'VectOptions.conf using the "vi" text editor:$ vi VectOptions.conf
6. To start editing, press the [i] key on your keyboard to enter Insert mode.
7. Once you are done editing the file, press Esc to exit Insert mode.
8. To save the changes made to the file, type the following and press Enter/Return:
$ :w!

31

Chapter 2: Scanning Help Tab

9. To exit the "vi" editor and return to the Terminal, type the following and press Enter/Return:$ :q
10. If you have Toon Boom Harmony Scan on your computer, you can start the application and verify
that the new style appears in the Vectorization Style list under Edit > Vectorization Style.

If you are using the batch processing method available with Toon Boom Harmony Server
to scan and vectorize your drawings, the selected style must be available on all themachines included in the batch processing list.
Refer to the Control Center Guide to learn more about setting up and using batchprocessing.

How to set the VectOptions.conf file on Linux using the “gedit” text editor
1. Open a Terminal window:
Menu: Applications> System Tools> Terminal
2. Open the etc folder inside the installation directory:$ cd /usr/local/ToonBoomAnimation/harmony_11.0/etc
3. Change your user to "root":$ su‣

If your user is part of the sudoers list, enter the following command and go to See "Openthe 'VectorOptions.conf using the "gedit" text editor:" on page 32:$ sudo gedit VectOptions.conf

4. Enter the root password.
5. Open the 'VectorOptions.conf using the "gedit" text editor:$ gedit VectOptions.conf
6. Edit the parameters of the VectOptions.conf file like you would do in most text editor
application.
7. Select File > Save.
8. Select File > Quit.

32

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

9. If you have Harmony Scan on your computer, you can start the application and verify that the newstyle appears in the Vectorization Style list under Edit > Vectorization Style.

If you are using the batch processing method available with Toon Boom Harmony Server
to scan and vectorize your drawings, the selected style must be available on all themachines included in the batch processing list.
Refer to the Control Center Guide to learn more about setting up and using batchprocessing.

33

Toon Boom Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)34

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

Chapter 3: Timing

When you create hand-drawn animation traditionally or in a paperless environment, it is important toknow how to set and modify the timing of your drawings.
In a traditional workflow, the person in charge of the digital exposure sheet reproduces the paper
exposure sheet created by the animator. In a paperless workflow, the animator creates and manages
his own exposure sheet directly in Harmony without the need for reproduction.
If you are more of a traditional animator, you are more likely to work with an exposure sheet. If you area digital animator, you may prefer to work with a timeline to visualize your timing. Harmony offers
both.
The Xsheet view displays the digital reproduction of a traditional paper exposure sheet used in handdrawn animation. You can set the animation sequence's exposure and name the drawings.
The Timeline view is also used to visualize timing, and represents elements and groups of elements aslayers.
You can adjust timing in both views; your choice depends on which technique you are used to working
with. Depending on your working style, some actions may seem preferable to do in one view insteadof another. Many of the actions you perform in the Xsheet can also be accomplished in the Timeline.
This chapter will often show both techniques. You will be able to choose which one you prefer.
In this topic, you will learn how to work on your drawing’s exposure and length. The exposure andanimation paths for symbols are covered in separate chapters.

The exposure sheet is not mandatory for Cut-out animation. It can be useful for creating characters andparts, but is not really needed for animation and timing. If you plan to work with Cut-out animation, you canstill gain useful tips by reviewing the section on exposure sheets.

The basic digital exposure sheet process is divided into the following steps:

35

Chapter 3: Timing•

Preparation on the facing page•

Frames on page 39•

Filling Exposure on page 65•

Managing Drawings on page 87•

Modifying the Layer and Column Display on page 94•

Printing the Xsheet on page 110

36

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

Preparation
The digital exposure task is quite simple. There are very few things to prepare in order to get ready.

Opening the Scene
The scene is generally created during a previous step such as scanning (in a traditional animation
workflow), scene setup, digital layout, or production organization.

Using the Workspace
The person creating the exposure sheet will need only the Xsheet view to create the digital exposure
sheet, although the Timeline view may also be helpful. If you are doing paperless animation, use theCamera or Drawing view if you want to sketch at the same time.
If you work with this layout often, you can use the Workspace Manager to save it as aworkspace,and name it Xsheet, for example.

While drawing and animating paperless animation, you can use the Workspace Manager to save afrequently used layout and name it Paperless Animation, for example.

37

Chapter 3: Timing Preparation

Preparing References

To start an exposure sheet, you need to prepare your references. For traditional animation, you willneed to reproduce the animator's paper exposure sheet. If you are working remotely, the studio canscan the paper exposure sheet using third-party software and send the digital files to be opened andviewed digitally.
In paperless animation, you will usually create an exposure sheet from the Xsheet view.The
information from your layout and posing or storyboard will help you approximate how many
elements are required in the scene.

38Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

FramesOnce the references are ready, you need to set the scene length by adding the right number of frames
to your scene. You can set the global scene length from the top menu.
In the Xsheet and Timeline view, you can add and remove frames from a scene to edit its length.

How to set the scene length
1. From the top menu, select Scene > Scene Length.
The Set Scene Length dialog box opens.

2. In the Number of Frames field, enter the number of frames needed.

How to extend a scene in the Timeline view
1. In the Timeline view, drag the scene length bracket to the right to add more frames to your scene.

How to add frames before or after a selection to the extend scene length in the
Xsheet view
You can add frames anywhere in the middle of the scene. If you select a frame row in the Xsheet view,
Harmony will add the new frames before or after the selection, depending on your choice.
1. In the Xsheet view, select a frame row.

2. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Scene >Frame > Add Frames Before Selection or Add
Frames After Selection.

‣

In the Xsheet view, right-click and select Frames > Add Frames Before Selection or Add
Frames After Selection.

39

Chapter 3: Timing Frames‣

In the Xsheet view toolbar, click the Add Frames
selection.

‣

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

button to add frame after your

The Add Frames dialog box opens.

3. In the Number of Frames to Add field, enter the number of frames needed in the scene.

How to add frames at the start or end to extend the scene length from the top menu
1. From the top menu, select Scene > Frame > Add Frames At Start or Add Frames At End.
‣In the Xsheet view toolbar, press the Add Frames
selection.

button to add frame after your

The Add Frames dialog box opens.

2. In the Number of Frames to Add field, enter the number of frames needed in the scene.

How to reduce the scene length in the Timeline view
When you remove frames at the end of a scene to reduce the scene length in the Timeline view, theexposed drawings and symbols are not deleted. They are still available if you extend the scene
afterwards.
1. In the Timeline view, drag the scene length bracket to the left to remove frames from the scene.

How to remove a frame or a range of frames to reduce the scene length in the
Xsheet view
In the Xsheet view, you can remove any selected frame range, such as the last frame.
1. In the Xsheet view, do one of the following:‣

Select a frame in a given column.

‣

Select a frame range by clicking the first frame’s number and then dragging the selection
highlight down to the last frame to delete.

40Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

2. To delete the selected frames, do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Scene > Frame > Remove Selected Frames.

‣

Press Delete to delete the selection.

‣

Click Remove Frames
repeatedly.

button. To remove several frame selections, click the button

If you selected a range of frames, the Warning dialog box may open.

3. To complete the operation:‣

Click Yes to delete the selection.

‣

Click No to delete only the exposure in the cell and not the frames.

‣

Select the Don’t Show This Message Again option to prevent the warning message frombeing displayed each time you delete a frame range.

41

Chapter 3: Timing Creating Drawing Elements

Creating Drawing Elements
Before filling any value or setting any timing or exposure, you need to add different drawing elements.
Each drawing element is represented as a vertical element column in the Xsheet view and a horizontal
element layer in the Timeline view.
In Harmony, whether you work in the Timeline or Xsheet view, any modification you do to one view will
be applied to both. You can also see your layers displayed in the Network view as modules.
To start an exposure sheet, you will use drawing elements. Drawing elements are drawing containers.
Any image file, either bitmap or vector, will use a drawing element.
When you add a drawing element to your scene, a folder is added to the scene directory. This folder isnamed the same way as the drawing element. Its purpose is to contain all the drawings related to thiselement. For example, in cut-out animation, a character can have many heads available. All of the headdrawings will be contained in this folder, even if they are not exposed in the Timeline or the Xsheet
view. There is always a drawing container connected to a drawing element (layer, column).

There are different element types available such as Sound and Expression. A sound element will containsound files. Expressions, Beziers, Eases, 3D Path, Quadmaps and Pegs are for motion purposes during thecompositing step. It is not necessary to create these types to create your exposure sheet.

You can add drawing elements from the Timeline view, Xsheet view, and the Scene menu.
This section is divided as follows:•

Layer and Column Concepts below•

Layer and Column Types on the facing page•

Adding New Drawing Elements on page 46•

Deleting Layers and Columns on page 50•

Layer and Column Properties on page 52•

Modifying Layers and Columns on page 53•

Duplicating Layers and Columns on page 56•

Cloning Layers and Columns on page 56•

Adding an Annotation Column on page 57

Layer and Column Concepts
A layer is linked to a directory, the location where all its drawings are saved. This directory has thesame name as the layer. When a name is typed in a cell,Harmony searches the layer's directory for thecorresponding drawing to display. If there is no corresponding drawing, a new one is created.
Drawings are exposed in cells, and linked to the drawings saved in the layer's directory. Removing adrawing from a cell means it is not displayed. It will not be deleted from the directory.
A drawing that is exposed multiple times (for example, in a walk cycle) would be linked to the same
original drawing in the layer's directory. If you modify, repaint, or correct the drawing, all exposed42

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)drawings with the same name are updated simultaneously. You must duplicate or create a new
drawing to modify a single exposure and retain the others.

When you create a drawing cycle, all of the repeated drawings are linked to the original files. This means thatwhen you modify, repaint, or correct a drawing named “1,” all drawings named “1” are updated simultaneously.
In order to modify a drawing independently from its other exposures, you must duplicate the drawing.

Layer and Column Types
A column is also known as a layer. There are several types of layers that you can add in the Xsheet andTimeline view. Each layer is tagged with an icon to help differentiate them. Some layers are
represented differently in the Xsheet view.

Drawing Layer

The most common layer type is the drawing layer. Any time you need to create a vector drawing orimport a symbol or image, you can use a drawing layer. You can also create bitmap artwork on a
drawing layer.

Bitmap images are contained in Bitmap layers.

Bitmap Layer

43

Chapter 3: Timing Creating Drawing Elements

If you import a picture or bitmap images in your project, they are inserted in a Bitmap layer. If you
choose to vectorize your image when you import, the bitmap object will be placed on a Drawing
layer. This way, you can have bitmap images mixed with vector drawings on a Drawing layer.
When importing a bitmap image, you have the option of encapsulating the image in a symbol. If you
place a non-vectorized bitmap into a symbol, you will still not be able to mix vector drawings with iton the same layer. If you place a vectorized bitmap in a symbol, you must enter the symbol to be able
to mix it with vector artwork.

Camera Layer

You can only have one Camera layer at a time in your timeline. By default, there is no Camera layer
when you create a scene. You need to add a Camera layer when you want to create a camera
motion.
The Camera layer is not visible in the Xsheet view.

If you want to have several cameras with different settings, you can keep adding Camera layers in yourTimeline view (however, only one will ever be visible at a time as you can only have one camera at a timein your timeline). To switch to a different camera, select Scene > Camera and select another camera layer.

Effect Layer

To enhance the look of your scene, you can add effect layers and attach your drawings to them. In
Harmony, there is a series of effect modules in the Module Library view.
When you select the Effect layer in the Timeline view, the effect’s parameter columns are displayed in
the Functions section of the Xsheet view.

Colour-Card Layer

The Colour-Card layer is used to add a plain colour background to a scene. By default, your scene
has no background colour and if you render it as a QuickTime movie or image sequence, it will have a
black background.
This layer is not visible in the Xsheet view.

Group Layer

44

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

A Group layer can be used to organize both the Timeline and Network views. You can drag and drop
other layers onto a Group layer and then collapse the Group layer to hide these other layers fromview.
If you create the Group layer in the Timeline view, a corresponding module will appear in the
Network view. Any layers that you connect to the Group layer will appear in the Group moduleconnected to an Input and Output port.

Peg Layer

A Peg layer is a trajectory or motion path layer that does not contain drawings. It can be attached toany drawing layer, cut-out puppet, or other peg layers; they will all follow the trajectory you set in
the Peg layer.
When you select the Peg layer in the Timeline view, the peg’s function columns are displayed in the
Functions section of the Xsheet view.

Quadmap Layer

A Quadmap layer can be described as a deformation transformation layer that does not containdrawings. This can be attached to any drawing layer, cut-out puppet, or even other peg layers. They
will all follow the deformation you set in the Quadmap layer.
When you select the Quadmap layer in the Timeline view, the Quadmap’s function columns are
displayed in the Functions section of the Xsheet view.

Sound Layer

45

Chapter 3: Timing Creating Drawing Elements

You can import sound files to add dialog and sound effects to your project. The sound layer will be
added to your Timeline and Xsheet view when you import a sound file in your scene.
In the Xsheet view, the Sound layer is a dark grey colour.

Advanced Column Types
In the Xsheet view, you can add several advanced column types to create particular animation paths.
When you create these columns, they are not linked automatically to any particular drawing layer. You
can create a motion path using these columns and then link or unlink several drawing or peg layers toit.
Advanced column types include:•

Timing•

3D Path•

3D Rotation•

Bezier Curve•

Ease Curve•

Expression•

Annotation

Adding New Drawing Elements
There are different ways to add a drawing layer to your project. By default, when you create a newscene there is one Drawing column in the Xsheet view and one corresponding Drawing layer in theTimeline view.
You can add an element for each drawing and it will appear as a column in the Xsheet view, a layer in
the Timeline view, and a module in the Network view.

How to add a drawing element from the Timeline view
1. Do one of the following:‣

In the Timeline View menu, select Insert > Drawing.

‣

In the Timeline view toolbar, click the Add Layers‣‣

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

The Add Drawing Layer dialog box opens.

46

button.

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

2. In the Name field, enter a relevant element name.

3. Do one of the following:‣

Click OK to add the layer and close the dialog box.

‣

Click Apply to add the layer and keep the dialog box open to add another layer.

‣

Click Close to cancel the operation.

The new drawing element appears in the Timeline, Xsheet and Network Views.

How to add multiple drawing elements from the Timeline view
1. In the Timeline View menu, select Insert > Add Layer(s).
The Add Layers dialog box opens.

2. In the Type menu, select the Drawing option.
3. In the Number field, enter the number of layers you want to add.
4. In the Name field, type the name of the layer you want to add. If you are adding more than one
layer, a numerical suffix will be added to subsequent layers.
5. Do one of the following:‣

Click OK to add the layers and close the dialog box.

‣

Click Apply to add the layers and keep the dialog box open to add another layer.

‣

Click Close to cancel the operation.

The new drawing elements appear in the Timeline, Xsheet and Network views.

How to add a drawing element from the top menu
1. From the top menu, select Insert > Drawing.
The Add Drawing Layer dialog box opens.

2. In the Name field, type a relevant element name.

47

Chapter 3: Timing Creating Drawing Elements

3. Click OK.
The new drawing element appears in the Timeline, Xsheet and Network views.

How to add a drawing element from the Xsheet view
1. Do one of the following:‣

In the Xsheet view menu, select Columns > Add Columns.

‣

Click the Add Columns‣

Press Shift + C.

button.

The Add Column dialog box opens.

2. In the Name field, type a relevant element name.

3. In the Type field, select Drawing.

4. To complete the operation:‣

Click OK to add your new layers and close the dialog box.

‣

Click Apply to add your new layers and keep the dialog box open to add column.

‣

Click Close to cancel the operation.

The new drawing element appears in the Timeline, Xsheet and Network Views—see Layer andColumn Types on page 43.

How to create a column in Harmony using the advanced Add Column dialog box
You can use the advanced Add Column dialog box to make more file format and field size options
available when you insert the column.

48Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

1. From the top menu, select Edit > Preferences (Windows/Linux) or Stage > Preferences (Mac OSX) and select the Advanced tab.
2. In the Advanced Options section, select the Advanced Element Mode option to access theadvanced Add Column dialog box.

3. Click OK.
4. In the Xsheet View menu, select Columns > Add Column or press Shift + C.
The Add Column dialog box opens.

5. In the Name field, type the new column’s name.
6. In the Type drop-down menu, select the Drawing type.
7. In the Element section, select one of the following:‣

Create New Element: Create an independent column with its own drawing folder.

‣

Reuse Existing Folder: Link your column to an existing folder within the Element folder ofyour scene. If you select this option, in the Folder drop-down field, select the folder to which
you want to link your new column.

‣

Use Existing Element:Use drawings from an existing column in the new column. Bothcolumns will be attached to the same set of drawings, but their timing will remain

49

Chapter 3: Timing Creating Drawing Elements

independent from one another. If you modify one of the drawings, it will be modified in bothcolumns. This is the same principle as the Clone column.
If you selected the Use Existing Element option, in the Name drop-down field, select thecolumn to which you want to link your new column.

8. If you selected the Create New Element option:‣

Deselect the Vector option if you want your layer to contain bitmap images or enable it if
you want the layer to contain vector drawings. Most of the time, the Vector option will beenabled.

‣If you deselected the Vector option, from the Bitmap Format list, select which type ofbitmap image you want to insert in the column. Select the SCAN type if you are planning toscan drawings using the Toon Boom Harmony Scan module.

‣

If you deselected the Vector option and you chose the SCAN type, from the Scan Typemenu, select what kind of scanning you want to achieve.

‣

In the Field Chart field, when importing traditional animation, indicate the size of paper onwhich the animation or background was drawn. If you are not using perforated animation
paper, leave the 12 field default value as is.

9. Do one of the following:‣

Click OK button to create the new column and close the dialog box.

‣

Click Apply to create the new column but keep the dialog box opened to create other new
columns.

Deleting Layers and Columns
You can delete an element in the Timeline view or Xsheet view.

How to delete layers in the Timeline view
1. In the Timeline view, select the layers to be deleted.

2. Do one of the following:‣

In the Timeline’s Layer toolbar, click the Delete Layers‣

Right-click on the selection and select Delete.

The Confirm Delete dialog box opens.

50

button.

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)‣

Select the Delete Drawing Files and Element Folders option to delete all drawings andfolder linked to this layer.

3. Select the Delete Xsheet Columns option if you also want to delete the existing column in the
Xsheet view.

How to delete columns in the Xsheet view
1. In the Xsheet view, select the columns to be deleted by clicking on their header.

2. Do one of the following‣

Right-click on the selection and select Delete Columns.

‣

In the Xsheet View toolbar, click the Delete Columns‣

Press Delete.

button.

The Confirm Delete dialog box opens.

‣

Select the Delete Drawing Files and Element Folder option if you want to delete thedrawings and folders linked to the selected column.

3. To complete the operation:‣

Click OK to delete the selected layers.

‣

Click Cancel to cancel the operation.

The Warning dialog box may open.

4. Do one of the following:‣

Click Yes to delete all the frames from your scene.

‣

Click No to keep the frames in your scene.

‣

Select the Don’t Show This Message Again option if you do not want the dialog box todisplay again in the future.

51

Chapter 3: Timing Creating Drawing Elements

Layer and Column Properties
Each element has its own set of properties that can be modified, including effect and peg layers.
If you want to modify some of the element’s properties, display the Layer Properties or Column
Properties editor. You can display the Layer Properties editor from the Timeline or Network view as a
dialog box or open the Layer Properties as a view of its own.
The Layer Properties editor allows you to:•Rename the layer•

Enable or disable the layer•

Lock the layer•

Change the track colour•

Activate the onion skin preview•

Adjust the positioning and animation parameters•

Adjust many other advanced parameters

The Column Properties editor allows you to:52Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)•

Rename the layer•

Enable or disable the layer•

Adjust parameters for bitmap format, scan type and field chart

How to display the Column Properties editor from the Xsheet view
1. Do one of the following:‣

In the Xsheet view, double-click on a column’s header.

‣In the Xsheet view, right-click on a column's header and select Column Editor.

‣

Press Shift + E.

How to display the Layer Properties editor
1. Do one of the following:‣

In the top menu, select Windows > Layer Properties.

‣

In the Timeline view, double-click on a layer.

‣

Press Shift + E.

‣

In the Network view, click on the module’s yellow properties button.

2. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, select the layer whose properties you want to view.
The Xsheet column will not open the Layer Properties editor, but it will show the column properties
allowing you to modify settings related to the Xsheet column.

Modifying Layers and Columns
Once you add layers and columns to your project, you can modify their properties, names, orordering.
You can change the order of your elements in the Timeline view and Xsheet view. When you change theorder of your elements in one view, the other one is updated.
The Element Manager lets you add, delete or modify elements (drawing folders) in your scene. If you
have drawing folders that are not linked to a column in your scene, use the Element Manager to deletethem if needed.

53

Chapter 3: Timing Creating Drawing Elements

How to rename a layer in the Timeline view
1. In the Timeline view, double-click on the name of the layer to rename.
2. In the Name field, rename the layer and press Enter/Return.

How to rename a layer in the Layer Properties editor
1. In the Timeline view, double-click anywhere on the layer except the layer name to rename.
The Layer Properties editor opens.
2. In the Name field, rename the layer.

3. Click Close.

How to rename a column
1. In the Xsheet view, double-click on a column name. Do not click on the drawing folder name thatthe column is linked to (this also appears in the column header just below the column name).
The Drawing dialog box opens.

2. In the Name field, rename the column.
3. Click OK.

How to reorder layers in the Timeline view
1. In the Timeline view, select the layers to move.
2. Drag the selection to the new location.
3. Do one of the following:‣

Drop the selection on an existing layer to make it a child of another element layer.

‣

Drop it between the existing layers. Timeline layers that are located above the selection aredisplayed in front it. Layers located under it in the Timeline View are displayed behind it.

54

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

How to reorder columns in the Xsheet view
1. In the Xsheet view, click on the column’s header with the middle mouse button.
2. Drag the column to its new position.

How to use the Element Manager dialog box‣ From the top menu, select Scene > Element Manager.

Interface Element

ActionElements

Displays a list of the elements
contained in your scene.

Delete Elements

Deletes the selected elements.

Delete Elements and Directories

Deletes the selected layer, as well as
its directories (drawing folder).

Add/Modify Element

Use this area to add or modify an element.

NameType a new name in this field to create
an element or to rename the selected
element.

VectorCheck this box if the new element is a vector
drawing or if you want to enable the parameters on the selected element in the Elements list.

55

Chapter 3: Timing Creating Drawing Elements

Interface Element

ActionBitmap Format

Select the file format of the bitmap layerfrom the drop-down list

Scan TypeIf you are planning to scan elements with theToon Boom Harmony Scan module, selectthe scan type from the drop-down list.

Field Chart

If you are importing traditional animation,
select the size of the paper on which theanimation was drawn.

Add

Creates a new element with the current parameters entered in the Add/Modify Element
section.

ModifyApplies the parameter changes made to theselected element.

Duplicating Layers and Columns
Duplicating an element provides you with a copy of the drawings and their exposure. You can modify
anything you want in the duplicated element without affecting the original one. In the Network view,
you can duplicate the selected modules in the same way.

How to duplicate an element
1. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, click the layer you want to duplicate.

2. From the top menu, select Edit > Duplicate.
3. In the Xsheet view or Timeline view toolbar, click the Duplicate Drawing

button.

The new duplicated layer or column appears.

Cloning Layers and Columns
Cloning a layer or column provides you with a copy of the selected element that uses the samedrawings as the original. For example, if you modify a drawing in the cloned or original column, it is
updated in both columns.
You can choose whether or not to copy the column timing to the cloned columns.
•

You can modify the column timing independently from each other, but the drawings remain
linked.

•You can copy the columns timing, so drawings and timings remain linked.

You can clone selected modules from the Network view in the same way.
This feature is useful when you want to reuse a hand-drawn animation but have different timings.

56

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

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

2. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Edit > Clone.

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

From the top menu, select Edit > Clone to clone the columns' drawings only.

‣

From the Timeline View menu, select Layers > Clone Selected Layers: Drawings Only or
Layers > Clone Selected Layers: Drawings Only.

‣

In the Xsheet View or Timeline View toolbar, click the Clone Selected Layers/Columns:
button.
Drawings Only

button.

The new cloned layer or column appears.

Adding an Annotation Column
The Annotation columns are useful for marking actions, corrections or other information related toyour animation that you want to draw or write. This way, you can print your Xsheet, take it back toyour animation table and work with the annotations.

How to add an annotation column
1. Do one of the following:‣

In the Xsheet View menu, select Columns > Add Columns.

‣

In the Xsheet View toolbar, click the Add Columns‣

Press Shift + C.

The Add Column dialog box opens.

2. In the Name field, type in an appropriate name.
3. From the Type list, select Annotation and click OK.
The new column appears.

57

button.

Chapter 3: Timing Creating Drawing Elements

Drawing and Typing in the Annotation Column

In the annotation column, you can type in your notes and relevant information, as well as draw
sketches and ideas that will be useful in producing your animation.

How to draw in the Annotation column
Before you can draw in the Annotation column, you must first activate the Enable Drawing option toactivate the Drawing mode.

Pen tablet pressure sensitivity is not supported in the Annotation column.

1. Do one of the following:‣

In the Xsheet View menu, select Annotation > Enable Drawing.

‣

In the Annotation column header, click to cycle through the icons, until the Brushdisplayed.

icon isThe Drawing mode is enabled.
2. To draw in an Annotation column, simply use your mouse or pen tablet.

How to type in an Annotation column
Typing in an Annotation column is independent from the Drawing mode. You can be in either mode58

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

and the typing will work.
1. Do one of the following:‣

In the selected cell, press Ctrl (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ (Mac OS X).

‣

In the selected cell, hold down Ctrl + Shift + click (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + Shift + click (MacOS X)..

2. In the selected cell, type the desired text.

To learn about typing values in the Xsheet view, refer to Typing Exposure on page 66.

How to erase part of a drawn annotation using Erasing mode
You can erase part or all of the Annotation column’s text and drawn annotations.

Annotations that you type in cannot be erased using this method.

1. In the Annotation column header, click to cycle through the icons until the Eraser
displayed.

icon is2. In the column, click and drag the cursor on top of the drawn annotation to erase parts of it.

59

Chapter 3: Timing Creating Drawing Elements

When using a pen on a tablet, you MUST flip your pen to the eraser side for the eraser to work.

How to erase an Annotation column selection
1. In the Annotation column header, click to cycle through the icons until the Selectdisplayed.

icon is2. In the Xsheet view, select the cell range you want to clear of text or drawn annotations. A selection
is indicated by four pairs of dots on the left side of a cell. Do not select any cells if you plan to clear
everything.

3. In the Xsheet view, right-click in the Annotation column.
4. Do one of the following:‣

Select Annotation > Erase All to erase the entire content of the column.

‣

Select Annotation > Erase Selected Images to erase the images contained in the selected
cell range.

‣

Select Annotation > Erase Selected Texts to erase the text contained in the selected cellrange.

Changing the Drawing Settings
You can change the pen size and colour when you draw in the Annotation column.

How to change the pen width
1. Right click on a frame within an annotation column or in the Xsheet View menu, select Annotation> Pen Width.
2. Do one of the following:‣

Select a pen width preset.

‣

Select Change Current.

If you selected the Change Current option, the Pen Width dialog box opens.

60Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

3. In the Pen Width field, type the number of pixels you want the pen size to be.
4. Click OK.

How to change the pen colour
1. In the Xsheet View menu, select Annotation > Change Pen Colour.
The Select Colour dialog box opens.

2. Choose the new colour.
3. Click OK.

Displaying Tick Marks
When working with the Annotation columns, it is useful to display tick marks on odd-numberedframes.

To display the tick marks, you must run a short script.

How to display tick marks
1. From the top menu, select Windows > Script Editor.

61

Chapter 3: Timing Creating Drawing Elements

2. From the Script Editor menu, select File > New Script.
3. Type in a name for your script and click OK.
4. In the File list, select the script you created.
5. On the right side of the view, type the following script:
function display_tick_marks(){
preferences.setBool("XSHEET_ANNOTATION_FRAME_MARKER", true);MessageLog.trace( preferences.getBool("XSHEET_ANNOTATION_FRAME_MARKER",
false));}
6. Click Verify.
The script is verified.
7. From the File menu, select Play/Debug > Run.
A dialog box opens with your script selected in the Files column.
8. In the Functions column, select display_tick_marks and click OK.
Tick marks appear on odd frames in the Annotation column.

If you do not see tick marks, close and restart Harmony.

How to turn off the display of tick marks
1. Follow steps 1 to 5 of How to display tick marks and use the following script:{
preferences.setBool("XSHEET_ANNOTATION_FRAME_MARKER", false);
MessageLog.trace( preferences.getBool("XSHEET_ANNOTATION_FRAME_MARKER",
false));}
2. Follow steps 6 to 8.
All tick marks are removed from the Annotation column.

Importing an Annotation FileIf you scanned your paper exposure sheet’s annotations or if you need to place some pictures ordrawings in the annotation columns, you can easily import them.

How to import annotation files
1. In the Xsheet view, select the first cell in the annotation column where you want the imported
image to start.

62

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

2. Right click on the frame or from the Xsheet view menu, select Annotation > Import File.
3. Browse for the bitmap image to import.
4. Click Open.
The image appears in the annotation column.

Linking External Files with Timing Columns
Timing columns are unique in that they can reference a source folder outside of the project folder tobring images into the project. For example, you may have background scenes created in a third party
software that you might need to update in the future; by using Timing columns, you can dynamicallylink your backgrounds, expose different backgrounds at different times, and have live, automatic
updating capabilities.

If the project file is moved, or the folder that the column is linked to is moved, then dynamic linking isbroken and the images that were in that folder will disappear in Toon Boom Harmony.

How to use a Timing column
1. In the Xsheet view, click on the Add Columns

button.

2. In the Add Column dialog box, type in the name of the new column, then from the Type menu,
select Timing.
3. Do one of the following:‣

Click OK if you are finished.

‣

Click Apply if you want to continue adding more columns and column types.

A peach coloured column appears in the Xsheet with the name you typed in, and for the header,<unused>.

63

Chapter 3: Timing Creating Drawing Elements

4. In the Network view, add a new element module.
5. Open the Layer Properties editor by clicking on the yellow square of the module.
6. In the Drawing tab, select the Timing Columns option.
7. In the Name field, enter the path of the folder you want to access. If you use the Browse button tolocate a folder, you must select a file in the folder you want and then delete the dash and the suffix(for example, background-01 should be renamed to background) from the file name in thefield. If you leave the full file name selected, Harmony will display that file for the entire duration of
the scene, regardless of the contents of the Timing Column field.

This means that all the images in the folder that you are linking to are named using the naming convention
described above. If for some reason you are unable to access a certain directory, type the directory
extension directly in the path extension field at the top of the browser window.

8. In the Timing Column field, click the Arrow button to create a new timing column, or select thename of the column from the list. If you have an element directory selected in the Name field, theTiming Column will indicate which files are called from that element directory. Remember that thefile displayed at each frame is based on the element name, cell label, and extension. If the element
is toto, the timing column is labeled 1, 2, and 3, and the extension is TVG, Harmony will display
drawings totobody-1.tvg, totobody-2.tvg, and totobody-3.tvg at the selected frames.

In the Xsheet, the <unused> header changes to the name of the module in the Network view.
9. From the Extension list, select the file format of the files you want to display.
10. Click OK.
11. In the Xsheet view, in the Timing column, type the number that corresponds to the suffix of thedrawing file that you want to expose to make it appear in the Camera view.

64Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

Filling Exposure
Harmony provides different tools to fill in exposures and values, create cycles, and set increments.
This section is divided as follows:•

Filling Exposure Mode below•

Typing Exposure on the next page•

Holding Exposure on page 68•

Extending a Single Exposure on page 69•

Extending an Exposure Sequence on page 70•

Dragging Cells on page 70•

Increasing and Decreasing Exposure on page 73•

Inserting Blank Cells on page 76•

Deleting Exposure on page 75•

Setting the Exposure on page 77•

Filling a Selection with a Single Exposure on page 78•

Filling a Selection with a Sequence on page 79•

Filling a Selection Randomly on page 81•

Filling Empty Cells on page 82•

Creating Cycles on page 83•

Managing Drawings on page 87•

Renaming a Drawing on page 87•

Deleting a Drawing on page 88•

Duplicating a Drawing on page 89•

Copying and Pasting Drawings on page 89•

Merging Drawings on page 92

Filling Exposure ModeIn the Xsheet view, you can fill columns using two different filling modes: Overwrite or Insert. These
modes control the filling behaviour. The Timeline view only uses the Overwrite mode.

How to toggle between Overwrite and Insert modes
1. Do one of the following:‣

In the bottom-right corner of the Xsheet view, click the Overwrite/Insert button.

‣

Press I.

65

Chapter 3: Timing Filling Exposure

Overwrite Mode
By default, the Xsheet view is set to Overwrite mode. Adding a new value or a new value sequence
overwrites existing ones. The existing timing sequence remains in the same place and is not pushed
down the column.

Insert Mode
The Insert mode is the opposite of the Overwrite mode. When you add a new value or a new value
sequence over existing ones, the new values are inserted between the old ones. The existing timing
sequence is pushed down the column.

Typing Exposure
To fill in your exposure, you can directly type the values in the Xsheet view and Timeline view.

How type a value in the Timeline view
If you want to type an exact drawing name or value into the Timeline view, you must use the Data
view section of the Timeline.

You can only use alphanumeric values. (0-9, a-z, underscore (_) and dash (-)).

66

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

1. In the Timeline view, click the Show Data View

button.

2. In the Drawing Substitution field, type the name of the drawing you want to create, and press
Enter/Return.

How to type values in the Xsheet view

You can only use alphanumeric values. (0-9, a-z, underscore (_) and dash (-)).

1. In an Xsheet column, double-click on one cell.

2. Type a value or drawing name in the cell.

3. Press Enter/Return to move to the next cell.

4. Press Esc to exit the typing mode and return to normal mode.

67

Chapter 3: Timing Filling Exposure

Holding Exposure
Drawings in an animation project are not always exposed on a single frame; they are often exposed
for more than one frame. The most common exposure of a drawing is two frames. In the industry, thistype of exposure is known as animation in double frames or animation on twos. A drawing can also be
exposed for three, four, five cells and so on. To prevent mistakes and save time, the Xsheet lets you
hold your cells automatically as you type.
The Set Exposure option allows you to choose how many frames you want to hold for your exposure.

•This option is only available in the Xsheet view.

•

The selected Set Exposure settings will be kept from session to session. You will nothave to set them every time you use Toon Boom Harmony.

How to hold exposure
1. In the Xsheet View menu, select Exposure > Hold Exposure > Hold 2 Cells.
2. In the Xsheet view, right-click and select Exposure > Set Exposure To > Set Exposure to 1, 2,3,
or Set Exposure.
3. Type a value or drawing name in the cell.
‣Press Enter/Return to move on to the next cell.

‣Press Esc to quit the typing mode.

‣If you selected Set Exposure, the Set Exposure dialog box opens. You can hold as manycells as needed.

68Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

Extending a Single Exposure
Extending the exposure lets you select an Xsheet cell that contains a value and pull it down to thedesired frame.

How to extend a cell exposure gesturally
1. In the Xsheet view, select the red arrow in the cell’s right side. Make sure you see the drag down
cursor.

2. Pull down the selected cell to the desired frame.

The red selection box must be visible when releasing the mouse button. If not, the action is considered
cancelled.

How to extend a sequence from the top menu
1. Do one of the following:‣

In the top menu, select Animation > Cell > Extend Exposure.

‣Press F5.

The Extend Exposure dialog box opens.
2. Enter the frame number you want to extend the cell to.

69

Chapter 3: Timing Filling Exposure

Extending an Exposure Sequence
When working with a sequence that contains only numbers, you can extend an exposure sequence in asimilar manner to extending a single exposure.

How to extend an exposure to create a sequence
1. In the Xsheet view, select a cell containing a number.
2. In the selected cell, click the red arrow on the cell’s right side. Make sure to see the drag down
cursor.

3. Hold down the Shift key. Make sure a plus (+) sign appears.
4. Pull down the selection box to the desired frame.

The red selection box must be visible when releasing the mouse button. If not, the action is considered
cancelled.

5. First release the Shift key, then release the mouse button.

Dragging Cells
To readjust your timing, you can drag one or several cells to a new location. You can drag a cell to any
other frame in the same column or into another column.

How to drag a cell to another location in the Timeline view
1. In the Timeline view, select one or several cells to move.

70Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

2. Click on the cells selection and drag it to the new location.

3. Drop the selection. Do one of the following:‣

Drop by simply releasing the mouse or pen to overwrite the existing cells.

‣

Hold Ctrl (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ (Mac OS X) while dropping the selection to copy the cells.
The original cells will not be moved.

‣

Press Shift while dropping to insert the selection between the existing frames.

How to drag a cell to another location in the Xsheet view
1. In the Xsheet view, select one or more cells.

2. In the Xsheet view, select the small dotted areaon the left side of the selected cells.

71Chapter 3: Timing Filling Exposure

3. Drag the selection to any other cell in the same column or in another column.

4. Do one of the following:‣

Drop the selection to overwrite the existing cells.

‣

Hold down Ctrl (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ (Mac OS X) while dropping the selection to copy thecells. The original selection will not be moved.

‣

Press Shift while dropping the selection to insert it between the existing frames.

72Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

You can turn off the Gestural Drag Mode for the Xsheet view to prevent drawings from being
dragged from one location to another.

How to turn off the Gestural Drag mode
1. Do one of the following:‣ In the Xsheet view, right-click and deselect the Gestural Drag Mode option.
‣ Click the Toggle Gestural Drag Mode button (you may have to customize the toolbar to displayit).

The dragging pad disappears when the Gestural Drag mode is off.

This feature does not apply to Annotation columns.

Increasing and Decreasing Exposure
Once a value is entered in the Timeline or Xsheet view, you can increase and decrease its exposure.

How to increase exposure
Increasing the exposure adds one more exposure to a selected cell; repeating this action adds anextra cell each time. This is an efficient way of extending a drawing exposure and is always set inInsert mode. Increasing an exposure pushes the existing exposure ahead.
1. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, select a cell.

73

Chapter 3: Timing Filling Exposure

2. Do one of the following:‣

In the top menu, select Animation > Cell > Increase Exposure.

‣

Right-click on the selected cell and select Exposure > Increase Exposure.

‣Press +.

‣In the Xsheet or Timeline View toolbar, click the Increase Exposure

button.

How to decrease exposure
1. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, select a cell.

2. Do one of the following:‣

In the top menu, select Animation > Cell > Decrease Exposure.

‣

Right-click on the selected cell and select Exposure > Decrease Exposure.

‣In the Xsheet or Timeline View toolbar, click the Increase Exposure‣

Press -.

button.

How to increase and decrease exposure using the Increase/Decrease Exposure field
You can use this option in the Xsheet view to increase or decrease the exposure of a selected drawing.
1. In the Xsheet view, select the cell to modify.

74

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

2. Do one of the following:‣

In the Xsheet's bottom right-corner, enter the number of cells over which the drawing will be
exposed.

‣In the Xsheet’s bottom-right corner, increase or decrease the drawing’s exposure byclicking the up or down arrows.

‣

Press + to increase exposure.

‣Press - to decrease exposure.

How to use the Clear Exposure and Pull feature
You can use this option to reduce a drawing’s exposure.
1. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, select or range of cells.

2. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Animation > Cell > Clear Exposure and Pull.

‣

Right-click on the selected cell and select Exposure > Clear Exposure and Pull.

‣

In the Xsheet or Timeline View toolbar, click the Clear Exposure and Pullbutton.

3. The exposure is reduced by the selected number of cells.

Deleting Exposure
You can delete a drawing’s exposure in several ways. When you delete a drawing’s exposure from theTimeline or Xsheet view, you are not deleting the actual drawing file. You can always retrieve it bytyping its name again in a cell.

75

Chapter 3: Timing Filling Exposure

You can delete the exposure contained in a selected cell range or delete the entire exposure of adrawing exposed over several cells . Note that you can also delete the exposure for drawings
contained inside a collapsed group.

How to delete selected exposures
1. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, select the exposure you want to delete.
2. Do one of the following:‣

Right-click and select Delete.

‣Press Delete.

How to clear the entire exposure of a drawing
1. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, select a cell of a drawing exposed over several cells.
2. Do one of the following:‣

In the top menu, select Animation > Cell > Clear Exposure.

‣In the Timeline view, right-click on the selection and select Exposure > Clear Exposure.

‣In the Xsheet View toolbar, click the Clear Exposure
the toolbar to display it).

button (you may have to customize

Inserting Blank Cells
You can place an empty cell between other cells. This is always done in Insert mode and pushes down
existing exposure, even if you are set to Overwrite mode.

How to insert blank cells
1. In the Xsheet or Timeline view, select the cell in which you want to insert a blank cell.

2. Do one of the following:‣

In the top menu, select Animation > Cell > Insert Blank Cell.

‣

Right-click on the selected cell and select Exposure > Insert Blank Cell.

‣In the Xsheet or Timeline view toolbar, click the Insert Blank Cellto customize the toolbar to display it).

‣Press Shift + J.

The blank cell is inserted.

76

button (you may haveHarmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

How to clear a selected cell range without changing the exposure and timing
1. In the Xsheet view, select the frame range to clear.

2. Right-click on the selected cells and select Clear.

Setting the Exposure
You can easily increase or decrease the exposure for a selected cell range by using the Set Exposure
options.

How to set the exposure
1. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, select the cell range on which you want to set the exposure.

77

Chapter 3: Timing Filling Exposure

2. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, Animation > Cell > Set Exposure to > Set Exposure to 1, 2, or 3, or
Set Exposure.

‣In the Xsheet view, right click and select Exposure > Set Exposure to > Set Exposure to 1,
2, or 3, or Set Exposure.

‣In the Timeline View toolbar, click one of the Set Exposure
have to customize the toolbar to display them).

buttons (you may

3. In the Xsheet view, right-click and select Exposure > Set Exposure to > Set Exposure to 1, 2, or
3, or Set Exposure.
If you chose the Set Exposure option, the Set Exposure dialog box opens.

4. Type the number of frames you want the drawings to display and click OK.
The new timing is displayed in the Xsheet view.

Filling a Selection with a Single Exposure
The Fill Selection option lets you fill the same value over an entire selection. The selection can be over
one cell, a cell range in one column, a cell range over many columns, an entire column, or manycolumns. You can use numbers, words, letters, or any alphanumeric value.

78Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

How to fill a selection with a single exposure
1. In the Xsheet or Timeline view, select a cell range.

2. Do one of the following:‣

In the top menu, select Animation > Cell >Fill Selection.

‣

Click the Fill Selection
button in the Xsheet or Timeline view toolbar (you may have tocustomize the toolbar to display it).

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

The Fill Selection dialog box opens.

3. In the Value field, type the desired value.
4. To insert a keyframe in the frame following the last cell in the selection, select the Add Key
Exposure After option. Otherwise, leave it deselected.
5. Click OK.

Filling a Selection with a Sequence
You can create a numbered sequence over a selection. The sequence can be forward, backward,
single, double or higher increment, as a cycle, and so on. The sequence can be over one cell, a cellrange in one or more columns, or one or more columns.

How to fill a selection with a sequence
1. In the Xsheet or the Timeline view, select a cell range.

79

Chapter 3: Timing Filling Exposure

2. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Animation > Cell >Sequence Fill.

‣

In the Timeline view, right-click and select Exposure > Sequence Fill.

‣

In the Xsheet View toolbar, click the Sequence Fillthe toolbar to display it).

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

button (you may have to customize

The Sequence Fill dialog box opens.

3. In the Starting Value field, type the first number in the sequence.
4. In the Increment field, type the number by which the drawing number will increase from frame toframe. For example, an increment of 1 is used in this sequence:1-2-3-4; this sequence incrementsby 2: 1-3-5-7; and this one, by -2: 8-6-4-2.
5. In the Hold field, select an exposure holding value.
6. Select the Cycle option if you want a cycle; enter the number of cells for this cycle’s duration.

If you choose a two-cell hold, a cycle of three drawings will last for six cells.

7. If you selected a larger range than the amount of frames needed, select the End Frame option andtype the last frame needed.

80Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

8. If you want to have more than one digit in your numbers such as “001” instead of “1”, select thePadding option and add as many pound signs (#) as digits needed. In the field, you can type aletter or word to add before the drawing number.

9. To insert a keyframe in the frame following the last cell in the selection, select the Add Key
Exposure After option. Otherwise, leave it deselected.
10. Click OK.

Filling a Selection Randomly
You can fill in random values over a selection. You can give a maximum and a minimum value andcreate a range for the system to choose the random values from. The selection can be over one cell,a cell range in one column or more, or an entire column or many entire columns.

How to fill cells randomly
1. In the Xsheet view, select a cell range.

2. Do one of the following:‣

Select Animation > Cell > Fill Cells Randomly.

‣

In the Xsheet view, click the Fill Cells Randomly
toolbar to display it).

The Fill Cells Randomly dialog box opens.

81

button (you may have to customize theChapter 3: Timing Filling Exposure

3. In the Minimum Value field, enter the lowest acceptable value.
4. In the Maximum Value field, enter the highest acceptable value.
5. In the Hold field, choose an exposure holding value.
6. If you are applying this option to a drawing column, enable the Whole Numbers option to avoid
decimal points.
7. Click OK.

Filling Empty Cells
The Filling Empty Cells feature is used to extend the exposure of single frame drawings to fill therange of empty cells after each one.
When creating drawings on cells that are not side-by-side, the exposure of the first drawing no longer
fills automatically. You need to select the frame range where you want your drawings to hold their
exposure up to the next drawing and use the Fill Empty Cells command.

How to fill empty cells
1. In the Xsheet view or Timeline view, select a cell range.

82Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

2. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Animation > Cell > Fill Empty Cells.

‣

In the Timeline View toolbar, click on the Fill Empty Cells

button.

Each drawing in the selection is exposed in the range of empty cells that follow it.

Creating Cycles
Once you have entered a series of drawings and exposures, you can create cycles out of them inseveral ways.
You can loop your drawings using the following commands:•

Paste Cycle•

Paste Reverse•

Create Cycle
When you create a drawing cycle, all of the repeated drawings are linked to the same original files.
This means that when you modify, repaint, or correct a drawing named “1,” all drawings named “1”83Chapter 3: Timing Filling Exposure

are updated simultaneously. In order to modify a drawing independently from its other exposures,
you must duplicate the drawing.

How to create a cycle
1. In the Timeline view, select the cell range to loop.

2. In the Timeline View toolbar, click the Create Cycle
toolbar to display it).

button (you may have to customize the

The Create Cycle dialog box opens.

3. Enter the number of cycles you want, including the current selection.

How to paste a cycle
1. In the Xsheet or Timeline view, select the cell range to loop.

2. From the top menu, select Edit > Copy.
3. In the Xsheet or Timeline view, select the cell where you want your cycles to start.

4. Do one of the following:84Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)‣

From the top menu, select Edit > Paste Cycle.

‣

Right-click and select Paste Cycle.

‣

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

The Paste Cycle dialog box opens.

5. Do one of the following:‣

In the Number of Cycles field, enter the number of cycles you want to paste.

‣

Increase or decrease the number of cycles you want to paste.

6. In the Cycle Type menu, select the type of cycle you want to paste.

‣

Normal (forward): Pastes cycles as for all cycles, starting with the first cell of your selectionand ending with the last.

‣

Reverse: Pastes cycles in the reverse order of the original selection, starting with the lastcell of your selection and ending with the first one.

‣

Forward > Reverse: Pastes the first cycle in your selection as is, then the following one inreverse order. This repeated until all cycles are pasted.

‣

Reverse > Forward: Pastes the first cycle in your selectionin reverse order, then thefollowing one as is. This repeated until all cycles are pasted.

7. Click OK.

You can perform the same operation using the Paste Special dialog box. To open the Paste Special dialog
box, select Edit > Paste Special or press Ctrl + B (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + B (Mac OS X).

How to paste a reversed cycle
1. In the Xsheet or Timeline view, select the cell range to paste in reverse order.

85

Chapter 3: Timing Filling Exposure

2. From the top menu, select Edit > Copy.
3. In the Xsheet or Timeline view, select the cell where you want your cycles to start.

4. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Edit > Paste Reverse.

‣

Right-click and select Paste Reverse.

‣

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

86

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

Managing Drawings
Drawings that are created in Toon Boom Harmony are not stored in their cells. They are actual files
stored in the project’s folder. If you want to rename a drawing or delete a drawing from your project,
you need to edit the file and not the cells.
This section is divided as follows:•

Renaming a Drawing below•

Deleting a Drawing on the next page•

Duplicating a Drawing on page 89•

Copying and Pasting Drawings on page 89•

Merging Drawings on page 92

Renaming a Drawing
To rename a drawing, you need to select the drawing cell and use the Rename Drawing command.

How to rename a drawing
1. In the Xsheet or Timeline view, select the drawing to rename.

2. Do one of the following:
In the Xsheet or Timeline View toolbar, click the Rename Drawing
customize the toolbar to display it).
‣button (you may have to

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

The Rename Drawing dialog box opens.

3. In the New Name field, type in the new drawing name.

How to rename a drawing sequence with a prefix
You can rename a drawing sequence with a prefix, which can be quite useful for cut-out puppet
breakdown and deformation animation.
1. In the Xsheet or Timeline view, select your drawing sequence. Note that you can only select adrawing range in one column or layer at the time.
2. Right-click and select Drawings > Rename Drawing with Prefix.
The Rename Drawing with Prefix dialog box opens.

87Chapter 3: Timing Managing Drawings

3. In the Prefix to Add field, type the prefix to add before the drawing name.

How to rename drawings by their frame position
You can rename a series of drawings relative to their frame position. This is useful in hand-drawn
animation.
1. In the Xsheet or Timeline view, select the drawing sequence to be renamed.

2. From the top menu, select Drawing > Rename by Frame.

Deleting a Drawing
You can permanently delete a drawing file from a project's folder.

Deleting a drawing file is an operation that cannot be undone.

How to delete a drawing
1. In the Xsheet or Timeline view, select the drawings to delete.

88Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

2. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Drawing > Delete Selected Drawings.

‣

Right-click and select Drawings > Delete Selected Drawings.

Duplicating a Drawing
If you want to modify a drawing that already exists, but keep the original drawing intact, you canduplicate the drawing and work on the copy. When duplicating a drawing, the selected cell is replacedwith the new drawing. The exposure of the original drawing that was on the current cell is removed.
The original drawing is not deleted from the project folder or other cells in which it is exposed.
With Toon Boom Harmony you can create a keyframe at the same time as you duplicate your drawing.
This way you can modify and reposition drawings without affecting the original drawing.

How to duplicate a drawing
1. In the Xsheet or Timeline view, select the drawing to duplicate.

2. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Drawing > Duplicate Drawing.

‣

Right-click and select Drawings > Duplicate Drawings.

‣

In the Xsheet view toolbar, click the Drawing > Duplicate Drawing‣

Press Alt + Shift + D.

button.

Copying and Pasting Drawings
When you copy and paste a selection in the Timeline or Xsheet view, you are not copying and pasting
the actual drawings, you are pasting the exposure.
If you want to copy and paste the selected drawings into a different layer or paste the selection in thesame layer to duplicate the drawings, you must use the Paste Special feature.
There are three methods of pasting your selected drawings with the Paste Special dialog box:

89

Chapter 3: Timing Managing Drawings•

Never Create Drawing Files: Pastes all of your drawings as is. If there is a drawing in a cell, it isoverwritten by the pasted selection.

•

Always Create Drawings: Pastes all of your drawings as is, unless a pasted drawing has thesame name as an existing one. In this case, the pasted drawing is duplicated and renamed.

•

Only Create Drawings When They Do Not Exist: Pastes only the drawings that are named
differently from existing drawings. If a drawing has the same name as an existing one, it isignored and not pasted. This avoids the duplication of drawings in your layers.
This option is useful when you are pasting cut-out character templates containing drawings you
may already have in your scene and some new ones. Using this option, you only paste the new
drawings and are not duplicating all of the other parts you already have.

If you want to perform another Paste Special operation using the same settings you used previously,
you can use the Paste Special Again command instead. You can paste your selection using the samesettings as in the most recent Paste Special operation, without opening the Paste Special dialog box.

How to paste drawings with the Paste Special command
1. In the Xsheet or Timeline view, select the drawings to copy and press Ctrl + C (Windows/Linux) or⌘ + C (Mac OS X).

2. In the Xsheet or Timeline view, select the cell where you want your pasted selection to start.

3. Do one of the following:‣

Right-click and select Paste Special.

‣

From the top menu, select Edit > Paste Special.

‣

In the Xsheet or Timeline View toolbar, click the Paste Special
customize the toolbar to display it).

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

The Paste Special dialog box opens.

90

button (you may need toHarmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

4. Select the Basic tab.
5. In the Drawings section, select an option: Always Create Drawings or Only Create Drawings
When They Do Not Exist.

How to paste new drawings with the previous Paste Special settings
1. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Edit > Paste Special Again.

‣

Right-click and select Paste Special Again‣

In the Xsheet or Timeline view toolbar, click the Paste Special Again
have to customize the toolbar to display it).

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

91

button (you may

Chapter 3: Timing Merging Drawings

Merging Drawings
There are two methods of merging drawings.
•

You can merge selected drawings in adjacent elements. The columns and layers will be left
intact, and each new merged drawing will reside in the frames of the left-most column or lower
layer.

•

You can merge elements. All drawings will be merged. Unused columns and layers will bedeleted, but the original drawing files are still accessible.

How to merge selected drawings
1. In the Xsheet view, select the drawings you want to merge.

2. Do one of the following:‣

In the Xsheet View menu, select Columns> Merge Selected Drawings.

‣

In the Timeline View menu, select Layers > Merge Selected Drawings.

92

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

3. Do one of the following:‣

In the Xsheet View menu, select Columns > Merge Selected Columns.

‣

In the Timeline View menu, select Layers > Merge Selected Layers.

In the Xsheet view, the right-most column will contain the merged drawings and the remainingcolumns will be left blank at the corresponding frames. In the Timeline view, the bottom timelinelayer will contain the merged drawings from all layers and the other layers will be left blank at thecorresponding frames. Drawings are not deleted and are still accessible.

How to merge drawings in entire layers or columns
1. Do one of the following:‣

In the Timeline view,select the layers you want to merge.

‣

In the Xsheet view, Shift-click the headers of the columns you want to merge.

2. Do one of the following:‣

In the Xsheet View menu, select Columns > Merge Selected Columns.

‣

In the Timeline View menu, select Layers > Merge Selected Layers.

93Chapter 3: Timing Merging Drawings

In the Xsheet view, the right-most column will contain the merged drawings and the other columns
will be deleted. In the Timeline view, the bottom timeline layer will contain the merged drawings
from all layers and the other layers will be deleted. Drawings are not deleted and are still accessible.

Modifying the Layer and Column Display
You can change the way a layer in the Timeline view or a column in the Xsheet view display. You canstay organized without changing the content of elements or your animation output.
This section is divided as follows:•

Expanding and Collapsing Layers and Columns below•

Showing and Hiding Layers on the facing page•

Showing and Hiding Columns on page 97•

Modifying the Look of the Column on page 99•

Xsheet Thumbnails on page 104•

Changing the Colour of a Layer or Column on page 104•

Setting Scene Markers on page 106•

Setting Tempo Markers on page 109

Expanding and Collapsing Layers and Columns
To simplify the look of the Xsheet or Timeline view, you can expand and collapse your timeline layers
and 3D columns. If some timeline layers are parented to other ones, you can collapse the parent layer
to hide its children.

How to collapse or expand a layer selection in the Timeline view
1. In the Timeline view, select the layer(s) to collapse or expand.
2. Do one of the following:‣

Right-click on the selection and select Collapse/Expand > Collapse/Expand.

‣

Click the Expand Children Arrow‣

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

‣

Click the Collapse/Expand

button on the parent layer.

button (you may have to customize the toolbar to display it).

94Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)‣

How to collapse or expand all layers in the Timeline view
1. Do one of the following:‣

Right-click on the layers and select Collapse/Expand > Expand All or Collapse All.

‣In the Timeline View toolbar, click the Collapse All
have to customize the toolbar to display them).

‣

Press 0 and 9.

or Expand All

buttons (you may

How to collapse and expand 3D path or rotation columns in the Xsheet view
1. In the Xsheet View toolbar, click the Show Column List

button to display the Functions list.

2. In the Xsheet view, select the column header of the 3D path or 3D rotation column to collapse or
expand.
3. Do one of the following:‣

Right-click on the column’s header and select Expand/Collapse > Collapse Selection or
Expand Selection.

‣

or Expand Selection
In the Xsheet View toolbar, click the Collapse Selection
buttons (you may have to customize the toolbar to display it).

How to collapse or expand all 3D path and 3D rotation columns in the Xsheet view
Do one of the following:‣

Right-click on any column’s header and select Expand/Collapse > Expand All or Collapse
All.

‣

Press 0 and 9.

‣

In the Xsheet View toolbar, click the Collapse All
have to customize the toolbar to display it).

or Expand All

buttons (you may

Showing and Hiding Layers
As you work in the Drawing or Camera view, some layers may be in the way or are used as references.
You can hide these layers to make your work area less cluttered and easier to navigate. You can show
and hide layers in the Timeline view in several different ways.

How to show or hide all layers
1. Do one of the following:‣ In the Timeline View toolbar, click the Enable All

button (you may have to customize thetoolbar to display it).

‣ In the Timeline view’s Layer toolbar, click the Enable/Disable Alllayers.

95

button to show or hide allChapter 3: Timing Merging Drawings

How to show or hide individual layers
1. Do one of the following:‣ In the Timeline View toolbar, click the Enable/Disable

button (you may have to customize thetoolbar to display it).

‣ On the right side of the Timeline view, select or deselect the layer’s checkbox.

When you deselect a layer in the Timeline view, the corresponding column is hidden in the Xsheetview.

How to enable the selected layer and disable all others
1. Do one of the following:‣ In the Timeline View toolbar, click the Disable All Others

button (you may have to customize

the toolbar to display it).

‣ In the Timeline view’s Layer toolbar, click the Show Selection and Hide All Others

button.

In the Timeline view, you can hide or show certain types of layers such as Group and Effect.

How to show and hide layer types in the Timeline view
1. Do one of the following:‣

From the Timeline View menu, select View > Show > Show Manager.

‣

You can also select View > Show > Show Sounds, Show Effects or Show Groups toimmediately show or hide the selected type. This option will remain only for the current
session. When you close and reopen Harmony, the default settings will return.

The Show Manager dialog box opens.

2. Select the types of layers you want to display and deselect the ones you want to turn off.
3. Click Set As Default to make these new settings the default ones that will be used each time tostart the application. Click Restore Default to restore the settings used when installing theapplication.

96

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)In the Xsheet view, you have the choice of hiding or showing certain types of columns such as
Annotation and Functions.

Showing and Hiding Columns
The Xsheet view has a Column List section that can display all the columns contained in the exposure
sheet. It can be used to hide individual columns.
If you need to see a column after it has been hidden, you can display it directly from the Xsheet view
without using the Column List section.
You can also hide an entire column type, such as Drawing or Sound.
When a column is hidden in the Xsheet view, the corresponding layer is disabled in the Timeline view.

How to show or hide columns in the Xsheet view
1. In the Xsheet View toolbar, click the Show Column List

button.

2. On the right side of the Functions section, click the Expand button to display the Column List
section.
3. Do one of the following:‣

In the Column List section, select the columns to display and deselect the columns to hide.

‣In the Xsheet view toolbar, click the Hide Selected Column
customize the toolbar to display it).

button (you may have to

How to show a hidden column in the Xsheet view
1. In the Xsheet view menu, click on the thick grey line that represents a hidden column. You can also
right-click on the column header and select Show Hidden Columns.

The Show Hidden Columns dialog box opens.

97Chapter 3: Timing Merging Drawings

2. In the Show column, select the hidden columns you want to display in the Xsheet view.
‣

Click Check to select all the selected columns.

‣

Click Uncheck to deselcted all selected columns.

How to show all columns‣

In the Xsheet view menu, select View > Unhide All Columns.

How to show and hide column types
1. In the Xsheet view, select View > Column Types Manager.
The Column Types dialog box opens.

2. Select the types of columns you want to display and disable the ones you want to hide.
3. Click Set As Default if you want to make these new settings the default ones that will be used eachtime to start the application.
4. Click Restore Default if you want to restore the settings used when installing the application.

How to show or hide Xsheet columns using the Column List
1. In the Xsheet view toolbar, click the Show Column List

button.

2. On the right side of the Functions section, click the Expand button to display the Column List
section.
3. In the Column List section, select the columns to display and deselect the columns to hide.

98Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

How to show or hide an Xsheet column type using the Column List
1. In the Column List section, click the button corresponding to the type you want to show or hide.

Column Type butAction
tonShow/Hide All Columns
Show/Hide Drawing Columns
Show/Hide Function Columns
Show/Hide 3D Path Columns
Show/Hide Sound Columns
Show/Hide 3D Rotation Columns
Show/Hide Annotation Columns

How to show or hide function columns on the left side of the Xsheet view
1. Right-click on a column and select Tag > Function Columns Visible or Function Columns
Invisible.

Modifying the Look of the Column
In Harmony, you can modify the way the column displays drawings, empty cells and the column width.
You can modify the following elements:

99

Chapter 3: Timing Merging Drawings•

Empty cells•

Row units•

Held exposure•

Column width

How to modify the look of empty cell
1. From the Xsheet View menu, select View > Empty Cells > With an “X” or Blank.

How to modify row units
1. From the Xsheet View menu, select View > Row Units > Frames or Feet.

How to modify the look of a held exposure‣

In the Xsheet View menu, select View > Held Exposures > Line or Value.

How to modify column width
1. In the Xsheet view, select any column to modify the width.
2. From the Xsheet view menu, select View > Set Columns Width.
The Xsheet Column Width dialog box opens.

100Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

3. In the Column Width field, enter the desired width in pixels.
4. To end the operation:‣

Click OK to validate and close the dialog box.

‣

Click Apply to validate the operation and keep the dialog box opened to adjust the next
column’s width.

‣

Click Set As Default to create all the new columns to this width.

‣

Click Close to cancel the operation.

5. To restore all columns to the default value, in the Xsheet View menu, select All Columns to
Default Width.

Drawing Identification
In the Xsheet view, you can identify drawings as Key, Breakdown or In-between. This helps to keep the
Xsheet well organized while animating.
When working with several animators, directors, or even other studios, the necessity for retakes willoften arise. Harmony also gives you the possibility to mark new drawings as either Retake Key, Retake
Breakdown, or Retake Inbetweens.
If your production requires you to mark drawings with a custom marker, you also have the option tocreate your own.
Make custom marks for the Xsheet by creating your own icons, then cutting, pasting and changing a
bit of code. Not only is it possible to have your custom mark appear in the Xsheet and Mark Drawing
toolbars, but also in the Onion Skin and Flip toolbars.

101

Chapter 3: Timing Merging Drawings

You can create custom shortcuts for the Drawing Identification options in the Preferences dialog box.

How to mark a drawing as Key, Breakdown or In-between
1. From the top menu, select Windows > Toolbars > Mark Drawing.
The Mark Drawing toolbar displays.

2. In the Xsheet view, select the cell you want to identify. This option is not available in the Timelineview.
3. In the Mark Drawing toolbar, click one of these buttons: Mark as Key Drawing, Mark as
Breakdown Drawing
or Mark as In-between Drawing. In the Xsheet View menu, you canalso select Drawing > Mark Drawing As > Key Drawing, Breakdown Drawing, In-between
Drawing, Retake Key, Retake BD and Retake IB.
‣

If you selected Mark as Key Drawing, a‣

If you selected Mark as Breakdown Drawing, a‣

If you selected Mark as In-Between Drawing, there is no icon displayed in the cell since it isused to remove a Key or Breakdown marker.

icon appears in the cell.

102

icon appears in the cell.

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

How to create custom markers
1. With a bitmap editing software, create the following icons in PNG format:‣

Mark Drawing Toolbar icon (24 x 24 pixel)‣

Onion Skin Toolbar icon (24 x 24 pixel)‣

Flip Toolbar icon (24 x 24 pixel)‣

Xsheet Column icon (16 x 16 pixel)

2. Close Harmony.
3. When your icons are ready, open the Toon Boom Harmony drawingTypes.d folder.

If the drawingTypes.d folder does not exist, you must create it. To do so, copy the
resources folder from the following location.
•

Windows: C:/Program Files (x86)/Toon Boom Animation/Harmony
11.1/resources/drawingTypes.d•

Mac OS X: /Applications/Harmony 11.1/resources/drawingTypes.d•

Linux:/usr/local/ToonBoomAnimation/ProductNameVersion/resources/drawingTypes.d

Stand-alone‣

Windows: C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Toon Boom Animation\Toon
Boom Harmony\full-1100-pref\drawingTypes.d‣

Mac OS X: /Users/USERNAME/Library/Preferences/Toon Boom
Animation/Toon Boom Harmony/full-1100-pref/drawingTypes.d

The Library folder is usually hidden in the Finder. To see all the hidden folders and files,
type the following in a terminal window:
defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES‣

Linux: /home/USERNAME/Toon Boom Animation/Toon Boom Harmony/full1100-pref/drawingTypes.d/

Network
In Harmony Network, the path is global for all users so you must create the folder and place in/USA_DB.
‣/USA_DB/drawingTypes.d

4. Paste your icons in the drawingTypes.d directory.
5. In the same directory, open the drawingTypes.xml file in a text editor.
6. For each custom icon you want to create, add the following line. Make sure to place it before thisclosing tag: </DrawingTypes>.

103

Chapter 3: Timing Merging Drawings‣<DrawingType text="NewButtonName" pixmapFile="XsheetIcon.png"
commandIcon="MarkDrawingIcon.png" flipIcon="FlipIcon.png"
onionIcon="OnionIcon.png" />7. In that line, replace the following information with your new icon information:‣

NewButtonName: Write the name of your new marker. This name will appear in the button
tooltip.

‣

XsheetIcon.png: Write the name of the icon that you created to appear in the Xsheet
column. Include the file extension.

‣

MarkDrawingIcon.png: Write the name of the icon that you created to appear in the Mark
Drawing toolbar. Include the file extension.

‣

FlipIcon.png: Write the name of the icon that you created to appear in the Flip toolbar.
Include the file extension.

‣

OnionIcon.png: Write the name of the icon that you created to appear in the Onion Skin
toolbar. Include the file extension.

8. Save the file and close it.
9. Start Harmony.

Xsheet Thumbnails
When there are a large number of columns in the exposure sheet, it is not always easy to quickly
identify a particular column. Displaying the column thumbnails makes this easier. This option displays asmall thumbnail picture of the current frame below the column header.

How to display the thumbnails
1. In the Xsheet view, select View > Show Thumbnails.
The thumbnails appear.

Changing the Colour of a Layer or Column
To easily identify elements in the Timeline or Xsheet view, you can change the colour of layers andcolumns. The colours you choose will be reflected in the Network view.

How to change the layer’s colour in the Timeline view
1. Do one of the following:‣

In the Timeline view, click the colour swatch of the layer you want to modify.

2. In the Select Colour dialog box, select a new colour for your layer.

104Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

3. Click OK.
The layer’s background colour is updated. In a Drawing layer, exposed cells are the brighter,selected colour for easy identification. The corresponding column colour is also updated.

How to reset a layer’s colour in the Timeline view
1. In the Timeline view, select the layers to reset.
2. In the Timeline View toolbar, click the Default Track Colour
the toolbar to display it).

button (you may have to customize

How to change a column’s colour in the Xsheet view
1. In the Xsheet view, select one or more columns to modify.
2. Right-click on the column’s header and select Colour > Change Columns Colour.
3. In the Select Colour dialog box, select a new colour for your columns.

4. Click OK.

105

Chapter 3: Timing Merging Drawings

The column’s colour is updated. The corresponding column colour is also updated.

How to reset the column’s colour in the Xsheet view
1. In the Xsheet view, select the columns to reset.
2. Right-click on the column’s header and select Colour > Default Columns Colour.

Setting Scene Markers
Scene markers are visual indicators displayed at the top of the timeline in the frame counter area. You
can use it to denote anything relevant to your work. You can indicate at the frames you want to clean
up, a change in action, an impact, or where you intend to apply an effect. You can also add a note to ascene marker, which is displayed when you hover over the scene marker.
There are two ways to add a scene marker. You can make a frame range selection and mark thatwhole section or simply mark the current frame.

How to mark the current frame
1. In the Timeline view, make sure the playhead is set on the frame you want to mark. Even if you
right-click on a different frame, the scene marker will be created on the current frame, which means
where the red playhead is.
2. Right-click in the frame counter area and select Scene Markers > Mark Current Frame.

The Timeline Scene Marker dialog box opens. The Colour box displays a black colour swatch, orthe colour of the last scene marker you created.

3. Double-click the Colour box to select a colour for your scene marker.
4. In the Note field, enter text to display a tooltip.

106

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

5. Click OK.
6. In the Timeline view, the scene marker is displayed at the current frame. Hover over the scene
marker to display its note as a tooltip.

How to create a scene marker on a frame range
1. In the Timeline view frame counter, select the frame range on which you want to mark your scene.

2. Right-click and select Scene Markers.
The Timeline Scene Marker dialog box opens. The Colour box displays a black colour swatch, orthe colour of the last scene marker you created.

3. Click the colour swatch and select a colour for the scene marker.
4. In the Note field, enter text to display as a tooltip.

5. Click OK.
6. In the Timeline view, the scene marker is displayed over the selected frame counters. Hover overthe scene marker to display its note as a tooltip.

107Chapter 3: Timing Merging Drawings

How to edit a scene marker

If you select only a part of a scene marker, you will not open the scene marker for editing. You will only beable to create a new scene marker to overwrite it.

1. In the Timeline view frame counter, select the entire scene marker.

2. Right-click the selection and select Edit Scene Marker.
The Timeline Scene Marker dialog box opens.

3. Make your changes.
4. Click OK.

How to delete a scene marker
1. In the Timeline view frame counter, at least one frame counter in the scene marker you want todelete.

2. Right-click the selection and select Delete Scene Marker.

108Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

Setting Tempo Markers
Tempo markers are used to synchronize your animation with a musical score. This lets you reproduce
the FPB (Frames Per Beat) and use the tempo signature as tempo markers. The Xsheet view allows
you to pace your animation according to the tempo or beat of the soundtrack music or to any rhythmic
sound, such as the ticking of a clock or water leaking from a spout.

How to set the tempo markers
1. In the Xsheet View menu, select View > Set Tempo Marker or in the sound column, right-click andselect View > Set Tempo Marker.
The Tempo Marker dialog box opens.

2. Reproduce the tempo and beat value of your music or sound for the Xsheet view marker display.
‣

Starting Frame: Enter the number of the frame where you want the tempo markers to
begin.

‣

Frames/Beat: Set the frames per beat value. This will determine the frequency (in frames) inwhich a beat marker will appear. Keep in mind that, by default, 24 frames represent 1
second.

‣Beat/Bar: Set the tempo of your music or sound. This will determine the frequency (in beats)
in which a tempo marker will appear in the Xsheet view.

3. Click OK.

109

Chapter 3: Timing Printing the Xsheet

Printing the Xsheet
Once you have marked all the information, corrections, and timing you want in the Xsheet view, you
can print your exposure sheet. Printing the Xsheet allows you to take it with you to your animationtable or give a copy to the animator. You can also use it to create your Xsheet skeleton directly inHarmony.

How to print your exposure sheet
1. Select File > Print > Xsheet.
The Print dialog box opens.

110Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

2. To set up your print:‣

Windows: In the Select Printer section, select your printer and adjust the rest of the printing
settings.

‣

Linux: In the Print Destination section, select your printer and adjust the rest of the printing
settings.

‣

Mac OS X: In the Printer section, select your printer and adjust the rest of the settings byclicking on the Parameters
button. You can also click PDF and select an option from themenu if you want to save a PDF version of your exposure sheet.

Refer to your printer user guide to learn more about its options.

3. Do one of the following:‣

Windows and Mac OS X: Click Print.

‣

Linux: Click OK.

111

Toon Boom Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)112Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

Chapter 4: Colour Styling and Colour Models

Once the characters, props and locations are designed, it is 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
carried through the entire project called the master palette. If the master is modified, the colours in
the entire project are updated simultanously.
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.
To create the colour style and colour models, follow these steps:•

Preparation on the next page•

Working with Palettes on page 119•

Colours on page 136•

Painting the Model on page 148•

Sharing the Colour Model on page 150

113

Chapter 4: Colour Styling and Colour Models Preparation

Preparation
Before painting, you need to organize the colour model scenes and bring in your references. The
colour styling preparation is done in five steps:•

Colour Model Storage below•

Scene Creation below•

Setting Up the Workspace on the facing page•

Naming on page 116

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 to create a colour model scene. There are different possibilities available to structure yourdesigns and colour model scenes. We strongly recommend that you put all of your colour models inthe 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 thecharacters, 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 theFundamentals Guide to learn more about creating a scene.

114Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

If you have not already done so, refer to the Fundamentals Guide to learn about production structure,
file organization, 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 modeltype such as characters, props, effects, or locations, and finally colourmodel. For example, acharacter colour model scene for the Adventure project would be named adventure_characters_
colourmodel. This ensures that you always know what scene corresponds to what.

Colour Model Scene Structure
To store your colour models in a scene, it is recommended that you create one drawing layer for eachcharacter, 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 in a character colour model scene, it is a good idea to import some of the key locations tocompare and adjust the colours 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:

115

Chapter 4: Colour Styling and Colour Models Preparation•

Xsheet•Camera•Drawing•

Colour•Model

NamingNow that your models are imported, you can rename them appropriately. You should rename
elements (layers) and drawings corresponding to the model. This will help keep the work organized
and make it easy for others to follow.
For example, if there is a black and white character model called Erik in one drawing element and its
colour models in another one, rename your elements to include the character's name. For example,
the colour model for Erik's armour could be named: erik_armour_colour.

116Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

How to rename a drawing element
1. Do one of the following:‣

In the Xsheet view, double-click on the column header of the drawing element.

‣

In the Timeline view, double-click on the drawing element's layer.

The Layer Properties window opens.

2. Type in a new name.

117

Chapter 4: Colour Styling and Colour Models Preparation

How to rename a drawing
1. In the Xsheet view, click on a drawing name.

2. Do one of the following:‣

From the Xsheet menu, select Drawings > Rename Drawing.

‣

Right-click on the drawing name and select Drawings >Rename Drawing.

‣

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

The Rename Drawing dialog box opens.

3. Type in a new name and click OK.

118

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

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.
These are referred to as master palette1s.
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
new palette 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 name extension—see Palette File Storage on page 123.
When a zone on the character is painted with the colour contained in a colour swatch, a link is
automatically created between that colour swatch and the zone. This means that if the tint of thecolour in the colour swatch is changed, any zone linked to it will update to the new tint. This is one waythat colour palettes can save time and 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 thatcharacter in the rain using 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 the mood 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.

119Chapter 4: Colour Styling and Colour Models Working with Palettes

This section is divided as follows:•

Palette Lists below•

Palette File Storage on page 123•

Creating a Colour Palette on page 124•

Duplicating a Colour Palette on page 128•

Cloning a Colour Palette on page 129•

Importing and Linking Palettes on page 131

Palette Lists
The Colour view has two modes: basic and advanced.

120

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)•

Basic Mode
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 thedefault palette, but for movies, series, or shorts it is recommended that you create palettes foryour characters. To create a palette, you have to switch to the Advanced mode of the Colour viewand show the Palette list.

•

Advanced Mode
The Advanced mode displays the list of all palettes that are linked to the scene. To create palettes
for your 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 apalette list. The scene also has a palette list. For example, a drawing layer can use three different
palettes stored in three different locations, while another drawing layer can use two of these palettes
plus another one coming from another scene. The palette list keep track of the locations of thepalettes.
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 paperlessand traditional animations. A cut-out character will often be divided into 20 to 30 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 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
In Toon Boom Harmony, you can switch to Advanced Palette List mode and choose to save yourpalette at an element’s level. The Element Palette list is mainly used with traditional and paperlessanimation. Unlike cut-out animation, all columns (drawing elements) contain different characters,

121

Chapter 4: Colour Styling and Colour Models Working with Palettes

props, backgrounds, and effects. The Element Palette list is used when you do not necessarily
want all of the palettes for all 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 toaccess a global palette list, link your palettes to the Scene Palette list.

When you are using several cloned palettes that are related to the same original palette, Toon Boom
Harmony uses the highest palette in the list to determine the colour of the painted zones—see Cloninga Colour Palette on page 129.

How to show or hide the Palette list‣

In the Colour view, click the Show/Hide Palette List View
the Palette List area.

The Palette List window opens and displays all your palettes.

How to set the Advanced Palette Lists mode
1. Do one of the following:122

button to expand or collapse

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)‣

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

‣

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

2. Select the Advanced tab.
3. Select the Advanced Palette Lists option.

4. 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

buttons.

Palette File Storage
In Harmony, palettes are individual *.plt files that can be copied, transferred and stored. When apalette is created from Harmony, it needs to be stored somewhere. By default, the palette file isstored in the scene directory in a palette-library folder unless you specify a different location. There are
four locations where you can find palette-library folders:•Element
The Palette Library folder is stored directly in the drawing Element folder.

123

Chapter 4: Colour Styling and Colour Models Working with Palettes

•

Scene
The Palette Library folder is stored directly in the Scene folder.

•

Job
The Palette Library folder is stored in a Job folder contained in the Scene folder.

•

Environment
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 themon the file structure.
This existing structure is compatible with Toon Boom Harmony Server. Toon Boom Harmony’s
database has a leveled structure starting from the Environment down to the Element. Its client-server
configuration allows all data, such as palettes and scenes, to be shared between a series of clientmachines.

Element Level
Working with Harmony as a stand alone, the Element level is very useful when there are a lot ofdifferent palettes. When a colour model drawing is created, it is stored in its element folder. By
storing the corresponding palette file with the colour model, the colourist can load them both fromthe same location. This also creates a more organized structure.

Scene Level
Working with Toon Boom Harmony as a stand alone, a palette file can also be saved at the scene level,
so that all of the palettes 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 levelmakes 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 characterbuilding 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 allof 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.

Palette Backup
When sharing palettes between scenes, some users may accidentally modify the colours, even though
the palettes 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.

124

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

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. When you use the Advanced Palette Lists mode, you can decide at which level you want tostore your palettes: Environment, Job, Scene, or Element.
Before you can create a palette in the Advanced Palette Lists mode, you must first set yourpreferences to Advanced Palette Lists mode in the Preferences dialog box.
You can remove palettes from your Palette list if they are not needed in your scene. The actual palettefile 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 > Preferences(Mac OS X).

‣

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

2. Select the Advanced tab.
3. Select the Advanced Palette Lists option.

4. 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 Palettebutton.

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.

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. In the Colour view, click the Show Palette List View button to display the palette list.

125Chapter 4: Colour Styling and Colour Models Working with Palettes

3. 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.

4. 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.
5. Name the palette. There is no need to add the suffix "palette" to the name as it is always
recognized as a palette file.

6. 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.

126

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

The palette list is stored at the scene level instead of the Element directory. This way, allpalettes linked to this list will appear in every drawing element created in the scene. There is noneed to manually load the palette in each element.
‣

The Element Palette List is mainly used with traditional and paperless animation. Unlike cutout animation, all columns (drawing elements) contain different characters, props,
backgrounds and effects. The Element Palette List is used because you do not necessarily
want all of the palettes for all 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 preferto access a global palette list, link your palettes to the Scene Palette List.

7. 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.

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.

127Chapter 4: Colour Styling and Colour Models Working with Palettes

Duplicating a Colour Palette
A duplicated palette is a simple copy of the original palette. It uses the same names, colour values, but
has a different ID and is independent from the original palette. This ensures that both palettes arecompletely independent.
This option is used when there are similar models and you want to avoid recreating and naming all of
the colours. You can change the values and the names afterward without affecting the original palette.
You can also keep some RGBA values, such as the eyes, teeth, tongue, inside mouth, etc.

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 View 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 123.

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.

128

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

Cloning a Colour Palette

A character usually has only one master palette, although there are times when the characters areplaced in different lighting conditions and require a different colour shading. The night palette is a
popular choice when a scene or sequence changes from day to night. It can be difficult and timeconsuming to repaint everything and creating two independent palettes can be quite complex. As analternative, 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, butthey can have different names and RGBA values. Depending on the activated palette (night or day), thepainted drawing will update. So there is no need to repaint the animation, but to create or import aclone palette (palette style).

How to clone a palette
1. In the Colour view, select a palette to clone.

2. From the Colour View menu, select Palettes > Clone or right-click and select Clone.
The Palette Browser: Clone Palette dialog box opens.

129Chapter 4: Colour Styling and Colour Models Working with Palettes

3. If you are in Advanced Palette List mode, select the palette storage level—see Palette File Storage
on page 123.

4. In the New Palette Name field, name the palette. It is recommended that you keep the "-clone" inthe 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 145.
7. From the Colour View menu, select Palettes> Tint Panel or right-click and select Tint Panel.
The Blend/Offset Tint panel opens.

130Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

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.

You can also modify the colours individually with the Colour Picker window.

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 yourpalette lists.
You may encounter a case where only a colour palette is visible when a layer is selected. If you needthat palette in a second layer, you can link the palette to the second layer's palette list, A good
example would be a scene where there is a character on one layer and its arm is on another. In orderfor both layers to access the palette, you must link both Element Palette lists to that palette. If you
palette is linked to the Scene Palette list, it will be accessible by all layers.

131

Chapter 4: Colour Styling and Colour Models Working with Palettes

If you created a palette in another project and you want to import it in your current project, you canbrowse for the palette file on your computer and add it to your scene. When the palette is imported inyour scene, the file is copied in the project’s directory. It is not linked to the original file.
With Toon Boom Harmony as a stand-alone application, every scene is local to the machine. Thismeans that all of the scene’s data is only accessible from that particular scene. Palettes are also local
to the scene; they can be shared between all drawing layers, but not between scenes.
However, you may want to share palettes across a whole project. Harmony offers that possibility. Bydefault, a palette is an independent file stored in your scene. This file can be copied, moved, ordeleted.
To link a palette throughout an entire project, you need to create a central directory where you cancopy all the palettes you created. Every time you link a palette in an element, it is linked to this folder.
If you modify the palette, it will be updated throughout the whole project.
You will notice that when you create or link a palette, a small icon appears on its left. These icons
represent the palette linkage status.
Icon

Description
Indicates that the palette is safe.
There won’t be any trouble once the scene will be exported. For example,
the palette file is stored 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 to the palette-libraries planned for the palette storage. The
warning in this case is that if you move your Master Palette directory toanother location, you may loose the palette in your scene.
Indicates that a palette file stored in a level such as Element, Scene, Job or
Environment is linked 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.

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.

132Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

2. Select the level where the palette file is stored—see Palette File Storage on page 123.
3. Select the palette list linking level by enabling either Scene Palette List or Element Palette List—
see Palette Lists on page 120.
The palette appears in the Colour view.

How to import a palette into your project
4. Do one of the following:‣

From the Colour View menu, select Palettes > Import.

‣

Right-click and select Import.

The Browser window opens.
5. Browse for a palette file located (*.plt) on your hard drive. You will generally find the palettes inyour project's palette-library directory.
6. Click Open.
The Palette Browser opens.

133Chapter 4: Colour Styling and Colour Models Working with Palettes

7. If you are in Advanced Palette mode, select the level where the palette file is stored—see PaletteFile Storage on page 123.
8. If you are 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 120.
9. 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 Palette
external.

button to create your palette to be used as

2. Save your scene by selecting File > Save from the top menu or by clicking the Save
press Ctrl + S (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + S (Mac OS X).

button or

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. Refer to the Fundamentals Guide to learn more about project organization.

4. Name the folder appropriately, for example: Joe_master_palette.
5. From your operating system, browse to your Toon Boom Harmony scene and open the palettelibrary folder.

6. Select and copy your palette *.plt file to copy it to the master palette directory.

134

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

7. Create a new Toon Boom Harmony scene or open the scene where you will link this palette.
8. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, select the element to link the palette to.

9. From the Colour View menu, select Palettes > Link to External.
The Link to External Palette dialog box opens.

10. Click Browse to search for your master palettes folder and select the palette *.plt file you wantto link.
11. In the Palette list section, select how you want to load the palette; at the scene or element level.
12. 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.

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 duplicatedpalette into the palette list using the Link to External command, like you did for the other elements.

135

Chapter 4: Colour Styling and Colour Models Colours

Colours
Toon Boom Harmony has some very powerful colouring features when it comes to painting. To paintyour drawings, you will use different colour swatches, unlike some other painting programs where you
modify the main 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 yourdrawing. You can add as many swatches as you want. You can also rename them and modify existingones.

When you modify the colour of an existing swatch, it automatically updates all the zones painted withthis swatch throughout the entire project. The colour swatch has a unique ID number that associates itwith the painted 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:136Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)•

Adding a Colour Swatch below•

Colour Display Modes on page 143•

Copying and Pasting Colours on page 144•

Mixing Colours on page 145

Adding a Colour Swatch
You can use several different types of colour swatches.

In Toon Boom Harmony, when you click on the Add Colour
button, a new colour swatch is createdusing the colour of the currently selected swatch from your palette. However, you can set a default
colour to be used every time you create a new colour in your colour palette. This might be useful if you
want to create different shades of the same basic colour.
The default colour is also the colour used when you choose to vectorize images that you are scanning
into your scene, however you add the Default colour swatch to your palette in a different way, so that
it is unique. It has a unique ID number that makes it recognizable from all the other colours in yourcolour palettes. Being able to change this colour allows you to change the basic colour of all scanned
drawings. This can be useful on more than just an aesthetic level as sometimes when you go to NTSC
or PAL, pure colours, such as pure black, can create problems.

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

button.

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

137Chapter 4: Colour Styling and Colour Models Colours

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.

‣

Click the Dropper
button to select any colour on your screen. It can be from the Toon
Boom Harmony interface, your operating system or any other open application.

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.

138

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

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 canquickly 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.

How to change the default swatch colour for all your colour palettes
1. From the top menu, select Edit > Preferences (Windows/Linux) or Stage > Preferences (Mac OS
X).
2. In the Preferences dialog box, select the Drawing tab.

139

Chapter 4: Colour Styling and Colour Models Colours

3. In the New Colour Pots section, select the Create New Colour Pot Using the Default Colour
option. You can also click on the colour swatch beside the option to change the Default colour.

How to add a new colour swatch using the default colour‣

From the Colour View menu, select Colours > New.

A new swatch is added to your palette using the default colour swatch colour. The new swatch
created with 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.

140

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)‣

Move the arrows left and right to modify the gradient distance.

Refer to the Editing Gradients and Textures on page 181 topic to learn how to reposition the gradientzones in your drawings.

How to create a texture colour
1. From the Colour View 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.

Refer to the Editing Gradients and Textures on page 181 topic to learn how to reposition your textured
zones in your drawings.

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. Anytransformation previously applied to the texture’s position in your drawings will be kept.

141

Chapter 4: Colour Styling and Colour Models Colours

How to replace a texture swatch
1. In the Colour view, select the texture swatch that contains the bitmap texture you want to replace.

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.

142Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

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.

Colour Display Modes
The Colour view has two display modes:
•

List

•

SwatchYou can alsodisplay 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.

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.

143

Chapter 4: Colour Styling and Colour Models Colours

How to display the swatch colour values‣ From the Colour View menu, select Palettes > Display Colour Values.
The solid colour swatches’ RGB values will be displayed between the colour swatch and its name.
The gradient colour swatches will be identified as (gradient).

Copying and Pasting Colours
When you are creating palettes, you may want to copy colour swatches or their values and paste themin other palettes to save time. You can also quickly copy a colour value from a palette in your scene toa 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 cancopy the colour swatch IDs. Here is an example of colour ID: 075cf5b552401130.

How to copy and paste colours
1. In the Colour view, select one or more colours to copy.

2. In the Colour View menu, select Colours > Copy or press Ctrl + C (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + C (MacOS 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, selectColours > Paste Colour Values.

144

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

How to clone a colour swatch
1. In the Colour view, select the colour swatch you want to clone.
2. From the Colour View menu, select Colours > Copy or press Ctrl + C (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + C(Mac OS X).
3. In the Colour view, select the colour palette you want to paste the clone into or create a newpalette.
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.
2. From the Colour View menu, select Colours > Copy Colour ID or press Ctrl + C (Windows/Linux)or ⌘ + C (Mac OS X).
3. Paste the copied value as plain text in the desired document.

Mixing Colours
If you want to modify a series of colours at once to blend a tint in them or offset their RGBA values, you
can use the Tint panel. This panel is quite useful when creating 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 Blend/Offset Tint panel opens.

145Chapter 4: Colour Styling and Colour Models Colours

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.
5. Select the Offset, Blend, or Mix option.

Parameter
OffsetDescription
Offsets the selected colours by the adjustments made using
the HSB and RGB sliders. Use the Amount slider to adjust the146Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)degree of offset. Use the Alpha slider to adjust the opacity ofthe selected colour.

Blend

Blends the selected colours with the colour swatch in the top-rightcorner. 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 inturn affects the selected colours on the left. Use the Alpha slider toadjust 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 will affect the mixed swatch
whether it is selected or not. Select either the Tint or Baseswatch and use the HSB and RGB sliders to adjust its colour.
This will affect the mixed swatch colour, which in turn affects
the selected colours on the left.

6. Click Apply.

147

Chapter 4: Colour Styling and Colour Models Painting the Model

Painting the Model
Now that you have created the colours and the palette, you are 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 othercharacters using the Import Drawings option or the Library to compare and adjust the palettes—see
Importing Models on page 177 to learn how to import your background file.

For paperless and cut-out animation, it is a good idea to provide a line-up template with the colour
model to show 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 theanimator, layout artist, or scene setup artist to retain the correct scaling throughout the entire project
when setting the elements in 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 Artor press L.

148

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

2. Create your master colour palette—see Creating a Colour Palette on page 124
3. Add new colours to the palette—see Adding a Colour Swatch on page 137.
4. Select your Paint Bucket

tool. We recommend the Paint Unpainted

tool.

5. In the Colour view, select the colour you need 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 is a gap in your artwork, you will need to close it in orderto paint it.

7. If you would like to separate your lines and fill zones on separated art layers, see Art Layers on
page 162.
8. Adjust the colours—see Mixing Colours on page 145.

149

Chapter 4: Colour Styling and Colour Models Sharing the Colour Model

Sharing the Colour Model
When your colour models are prepared and have been organized in a colour model scene, it is time toshare them. However, since the Harmony scenes are local, the palettes cannot be shared with otherscenes. You must prepare templates from the models and store them in the Library.
The Library is a central repository for all the data which will be reused throughout the production. It
can be accessed from any Harmony scene; if multiple users are connected to the same network, allmachines can access a central library. These models can be shared among all the users to ensure thateverybody has the same set of colours and references.
A template is a set of elements created from a Harmony scene that can be imported into other scenes.
It can contain drawings, palettes, and any other elements available in Harmony.
A colour model template is very simple to make. When a drawing is stored in the Library, thecorresponding palette is attached to it. This means that whenever the colour model is imported fromthe Library into the scene, the palette is also imported. To learn more about libraries and templates—
see the Harmony Cut-Out Animation Guide.

It is recommended that you add a colour model subfolder to your library.

There are two ways to create In the Timeline view, you can create a template by selecting the drawing
element's module. This contains all drawings from the drawing element, palettes, and exposure. A
template that has been created by selecting the drawing exposure contains the selected drawings,
their exposures, and the palettes.

How to create a template from the Timeline view
1. In the Library, select a folder to store the template. Right-click and select Right to Modify.
2. From the Timeline view, select the drawings, pegs, effects, keyframes, sounds, exposures, andmodules, and drag them to the Library's folder. Anything that is available in the Timeline view canbe stored as a template.

The Rename window opens.

3. Type in a name for the template and click OK.

150

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

There is no need to save the library. Everything is automatically stored and saved as soon as it ispasted in the library.

151

Toon Boom Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)152

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

Chapter 5: Ink and Paint

When traditional animation is traced, cleaned up, scanned in and properly exposed, it is time for the
ink and paint process. This consists of cleaning all dirt and hair (for example, dust that was in thescanner, dots that do not belong in the drawing, extra floating artwork around the drawing that must
be removed), painting the lines and filling 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 paintprocess because the same parts are always reused and moved around. The ink and paint processapplies only to traditional and paperless animation workflows.
Harmony is optimized to ink and paint drawings efficiently. Since most of the drawings are vectorbased, the colour zones are completely filled and there are no scattered spots left blank. Also, there
are some actions that can be applied on an entire animation sequence at once, like dirt removal, somecolour filling, line repainting, and so on.
Harmony uses palettes to hold all the colours you need to paint your elements. A palette is created byassigning a set of colours to each character, prop or effect. The colour styling artist will create a newpalette and add a new colour 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 119.

When a zone on the character is painted with the colour contained in a colour swatch, a link is
automatically created between that colour swatch and the zone. This means that if the tint of thecolour in the colour swatch is changed, any zone linked to it will update to the new tint. This is one waythat colour palettes can save time and money in your production.

153

Chapter 5: Ink and Paint

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 thatcharacter in the rain using 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 the mood and atmosphere of the scene without tediously
repainting each element.
The ink and paint process is divided into the following steps:•

Preparation on the facing page•

Dirt Clean Up on page 159•

Art Layers on page 162•

Creating Strokes on page 168•

Painting on page 170•

Inking the Lines on page 190•

Verifying the Zones are Painted on page 195•

Ink and Paint Tool Properties on page 198

154

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

Preparation
The optimal workspace for creating colour models and inking/painting in traditional animation
includes the following views:•

Xsheet•Camera•Drawing•

Colour•Model

As there is no default workspace for these tasks you will need to create a custom workspace foryourself—refer to 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 whichmakes 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.

155

Chapter 5: Ink and Paint Preparation

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 > 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.

156

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

4. Select the Camera or Drawing tab.

5. Change the background colour of:‣

Camera View: Click the Clear colour swatch.

‣

Drawing View: Click the Background colour swatch.

157

Chapter 5: Ink and Paint Preparation

The Select Colour dialog box opens.
6. Select a colour by clicking a colour swatch, clicking a colour in the colour gradient, or entering a
HSV/RGB Value.

7. Click OK in the three opened dialog boxes to apply your changes.

When you need to paint drawings with similar colours throughout the palette, you cancreate a clone of that palette and change all the colours to very bright tints to facilitate
the paint process—see .

158

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

Dirt Clean Up
When paper drawings are passed through a scanner, there can be some hair and dirt scattered acrossthem. These lines and dots need to be cleaned. Harmony provides different tools to help get rid ofthem quickly.

The Remove Dirt tool selects small dots and hairs on the drawing. Raising the Remove Dirt level will
select bigger dots. When selecting larger dots, be careful not to lose small details like pupils andnostrils. Once you 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 in large output files, especially if you work in high-definition resolutions.

159

Chapter 5: Ink and Paint Dirt Clean Up

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 is always safer to select anddelete them than to erase 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 > Clean Up > Remove Dirt.

‣

From the Camera or Drawing View menu, select Drawing > Clean Up > Remove Dirt.

‣

Press Shift + D.

2. Increase the Remove Dirt value by moving the slider to the right.
3. Enable the Apply to All Drawings if you want to operation to be apply to all drawings in the layer.

How to clean dirt with Remove Art Outside Selection
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Selecttool.

2. In the Tool Properties view, enable the Permanent Selection option.
3. Draw a selection around the animation making sure to include the entire animation sequence.

160

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

4. In the Camera or Drawing View menu, select Drawing > Clean Up and 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 the drawings.

The art outside the selection is removed.

How to access the Eraser tool‣

From the Tools toolbar, click the Eraser‣

From the top menu, select Drawing > Drawing Tools > Eraser.

‣

From the Camera or Drawing View menu, select 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 Drawing > Drawing Tools > Select.

‣

From the Camera or Drawing View menu, select Drawing Tools > Select.

‣Press Alt + S.

button.

161

Chapter 5: Ink and Paint Art Layers

Art Layers

Art layers give you the possibility to divide the artwork in your drawing on different layers. For
example, you can separate the outline and colour fill on two art layers, similar to 1950s traditional cell
animation. These art layers are contained within a single drawing as opposed to the timeline layers or
Xsheet columns where individual drawings with individual timing are stacked one on top of the other—see Creating Strokes on page 168.
Toon Boom Harmony drawings include four art layers.
•

Overlay on the facing page•Line Art on page 164•

Colour Art on page 164•

Underlay on page 165

You can access the art layers through the Art Layer toolbar. By default, only the Line Art and Colour
Art are displayed. You need to enable the Support Overlay and Underlay Arts option in the
Preferences dialog box.

Each layer can be used for separate hand-drawn animation tasks, letting you organize your work andfacilitate creation and revision.

162Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

Overlay

The Overlay layer can serve multiple purposes:•

Highlights and tones•

Annotations and corrections•

Sketching
You can also draw in the Overlay layer as it is a regular layer.

163

Chapter 5: Ink and Paint Art Layers

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.

Colour Art

In hand-drawn animation, you use the Colour Art layer to paint your animation. The outline is drawn
in the Line Art layer and colour is painted in the Colour Art layer. Strokes (invisible lines) are
generated from Line Art to contain the painted area.

When you are doing rough animation, you may want to send a clip to somebody for feedback orapproval before carrying on with your work. If you have several characters in your project that are
overlapping, it may be difficult to understand what is going on as you can see through thecharacters. Toon Boom Harmony can generate a matte automatically in the Underlay, or even in the
Colour Art layer, and fill all the zones inside your characters making them opaque. This process isfast and easy and allows you to send easy-to-understand movies.

164

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

Underlay

The Underlay layer can serve multiple purposes. It is frequently used by animators to sketch roughanimation or generate a matte colour when doing line testing.

How to enable the Support Overlay and Underlay Arts option
1. From the top menu, select Edit > Preferences ( Windows/Linux ) or Stage > Preferences ( Mac
OS X ).
2. In the Preferences dialog box, select the Advanced tab.
3. In the Advanced Options section, select the Support Overlay and Underlay Arts option.
4. Click OK.

How to switch between drawing layers
or Colour Art
buttons. When switching art layer,
1. In the Art Layer toolbar, click the Line Art
it will allow you to edit the select layer without affecting the other one.

2. Click the Preview All Enabled Art Layers
button to display both layers together. Even when thePreview mode is enabled, you will only be able to edit the select art layer. The other ones are only
displayed as a reference. By default, the Preview mode is always enabled in the Camera view. You
will only be able to see the select art layer by itself if you enable the Current Drawing on Top
option located in the Camera bottom toolbar.

To edit both Line Art and Colour Art at the same time, you must enable the Apply toLine Art and Colour Art button in the Tool Properties of the tools supporting theoperation.

How to switch between the drawing layers in Advanced Art mode
1. In the Art Layer toolbar, click the Overlay Art, Line Art, Colour Art
or Underlay Art
buttons to display the appropriate layer—see How to enable the Support Overlay and Underlay
Arts option above. When switching art layer, it will allow you to edit the select layer without
affecting the other one.

165

Chapter 5: Ink and Paint Art Layers

2. Click the Preview All Enabled Art Layers
button to display all the layers together. The otherones are only displayed as a reference. By default, the Preview mode is always enabled in the
Camera view. You will only be able to see the select art layer by itself if you enable the Current
option located in the Camera bottom toolbar.
Drawing on Top

How to generate a matte
1. Do one of the following:‣

In the Tools toolbar, select the Select‣Press Alt + S.

tool.

2. In the Camera or Drawing view, select the drawing you want to create a matte for.

You can also apply the operation to all the drawings in the layer at the same time.

3. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Drawing > Generate Auto-Matte.

‣

In the Camera or Drawing view menu, select Drawing > Generate Auto-Matte.

The Auto-Matte dialog box opens.

4. If you want to create a matte for all the drawings included in your layer, select the Apply toMultiple Drawings option.
5. Depending on how precise or rough your line is, increase or decrease the radius value. The lower
the value is, the closer to your lines’ contours the matte will be shaped. The higher the value is, thelooser the matte will be shaped.

166

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

6. In the Source Art menu, select the layer from which you want the matte created: Line Art, Colour
Art, Underlay or Overlay.
7. In the Destination Art menu, select the layer you want the matte to be created on: Line Art, Colour
Art, Underlay or Overlay.
8. If you already have artwork on the destination layer and you want the content to be deleted before
the matte is added into it, select the Clear Destination Art First option.
9. If you want the contour of your lines to be copied as invisible lines in your matte drawing (in case
you ever need to keep them for later), select the Copy Stroke in Destination option.
10. Click OK.

167

Chapter 5: Ink and Paint Creating Strokes

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 theLine Art when drawings 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 fromLine Art option to create 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 topatch gaps. Use the Auto-Create Colour Art from Brush option to create the strokes at the same timeas 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 betterto create the strokes afterward using the Create Colour Art from Line Art option.

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, enable the Permanent Selection
operation on all drawings in the layer.

option if you want to apply the

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.

168

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

4. In the Drawing View toolbar, click the Create Colour Art from Line Art

button or press *.

How to create strokes with the Auto-Create Colour Art From Brush option
1. From the Camera or Drawing View menu, select Drawing >Auto-Create Colour Art from Brushor press [Shift]+[F2].
2. Draw the required lines.
3. Once you are done, deselect the Auto-Create Colour Art from Brush option. You are now readyto paint your model.

169

Chapter 5: Ink and Paint Painting

Painting
You can choose to paint your animation in the Line Art or Colour Art level. You can paint in Line Art,but for traditional and paperless animation, you should fill your colour zones in Colour Art. You canaccess the art layers through the Art Layer toolbar—see Art Layers on page 162.
There are many advantages to separating the lines and colour zones, but the main one concerns thepainting process. To paint very quickly, it is useful to not worry about painting over the lines. If thelines 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 is better to have yourcolour zones bleeding under your lines to avoid seeing the backgrounds and other elements throughthe lines.

To avoid painting in Line Art by mistake, turn off the Preview mode and paint in the Drawing view rater
than the Camera view. Press P to turn the mode on or off.
This section is divided as follows:•

Painting Using the Paint Tool on the facing page•

Advanced Painting Features on page 172•

Selecting a Colour in a Drawing on page 176•

Importing Models on page 177•

Editing Gradients and Textures on page 181•

Closing Gaps on page 186•

Protecting Colours on page 188•

Highlighting the Selected Colour on page 188•

Inverting a Colour Selection on page 189

170

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

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 inseveral 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 thelines defining a zone, 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. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, select the cell on which you want to paint.

2. Do one of the following:‣

In the Tools toolbar, click the Paint‣

Press Alt + I.

tool.

3. In the Colour view, select a colour.

4. In the Drawing or Camera view, start painting. You can click on a zone or pencil line to paint it, or
you can trace a lasso or marquee selection to paint several zones or pencil lines at once.

The last colour you select while using the Paint tool will be remembered the next time you select the Paint
tool if you are using the unlocked painting tools in the Colour view.

171Chapter 5: Ink and Paint Painting Using the Paint Tool

Advanced Painting Features
The following advanced painting features are available in Toon Boom Harmony and are described inthis section:•

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

The Repaint Selection command is used to repaint any art inside a selection. You must first draw aselection using the Select tool in order for this command to be available.

The Repaint Selection On All Drawings command is used to repaint any art inside a selection on all thedrawings 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 orderfor this command to be available. The Permanent Selection option lets you maintain the same
selection throughout the drawings of a same layer.

172

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

The Repaint Outside Selection command is used to repaint any art outside a selection. If no selection
has been drawn using the Select tool, the entire drawing will be repainted.

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 Selecttool in order for this command to be available. The Permanent Selection option lets you maintain thesame selection throughout the drawings of a same layer.

The Unpaint Selection command is used to unpaint any art existing inside a selection. You must firstdraw a selection using the Select tool in order for this command to be available.

The Unpaint Selection on All Drawings command is used to unpaint all art contained inside a selection
on all the drawings within the same layer.

173

Chapter 5: Ink and Paint Painting Using the Paint Tool

You must enable the Permanent Selection
option in the Select tool Tool Properties view and thenselect an area 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 samelayer.

The Unpaint Outside Selection command is used to unpaint any art existing outside a selection. If noselection have been drawn using the Select tool, the entire drawing will be unpainted.

The Unpaint Outside Selection on All Drawings command is used to unpaint all art outside a selection
on all the drawings 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 orderfor this command to be available. The Permanent Selection option lets you maintain the same
selection throughout the drawings of a same layer.

How to access the Repaint Selection command‣

From the top menu, select Drawing > Paint > Repaint Selection.

‣

From the Camera or Drawing view menu, select Drawing > Paint > Repaint Selection.

How to access the Repaint Selection On All Drawings command‣

From the top menu, select Drawing > Paint > Repaint Selection On All Drawings.

174

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)‣

From the Camera or Drawing view menu, select Drawing > Paint > Repaint Selection On
All Drawings.

How to access the Repaint Outside Selection command‣

From the top menu, select Drawing > Paint > Repaint Outside Selection.

‣

From the Camera or Drawing view menu, select Drawing > Paint > Repaint Outside
Selection.

How to access the Repaint Outside Selection on All Drawings command‣

From the top menu, select Drawing > Paint > Repaint Outside Selection on All Drawings.

‣

From the Camera or Drawing view menu, select Drawing > Paint > Repaint Outside
Selection on All Drawings.

How to access the Unpaint Selection command:‣

From the top menu, select Drawing > Paint > Unpaint Selection.

‣

From the Camera or Drawing view menu, select Drawing > Paint > Unpaint Selection.

How to access the Unpaint Selection On All Drawings command:‣

From the top menu, select Drawing > Paint > Unpaint Selection On All Drawings.

‣

From the Camera or Drawing view menu, select Drawing > Paint > Unpaint Selection On
All Drawings.

How to access the Unpaint Selection command‣

From the top menu, select Drawing > Paint > Unpaint Outside Selection.

‣

From the Camera or Drawing view menu, select Drawing > Paint > Unpaint Outside
Selection.

How to use the Unpaint Outside Selection On All Drawings command‣

From the top menu, select Drawing > Paint > Unpaint Outside Selection On All
Drawings.

‣

From the Camera or Drawing view menu, select Drawing > Paint > Unpaint Outside
Selection On All Drawings.

175

Chapter 5: Ink and Paint Painting Using the Paint Tool

Selecting a Colour in a Drawing

While working in your Camera or Drawing view, you can use the Dropper tool to pick a colour fromyour 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 Drawing > Drawing Tools > Dropper.

‣

Press Alt + D.

tool.

2. In the Camera or Drawing view, click on the desired colour.
‣

If you are 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, Toon Boom Harmony will 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.

How to select the zones painted with the current colour
1. In the Colour view, select the colour you want to select the corresponding zones from.

2. Do one of the following:‣

Select Drawing > Select Strokes with Current Colour.

‣

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

176

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

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 themodel and use it to paint in your Camera or Drawing view without having to pick the colour from thecolour palette.
You can do more than just copy colours from a colour model. Harmony gives you the ability to copy
parts of the character directly from its colour model and paste these elements into the Drawing or
Camera views.

How to load a colour model from the Timeline or Xsheet view
1. In the Timeline or Xsheet view, select a drawing (*.tvg).

2. Bring the model into the Model view by doing one of the following:‣

In the Timeline view, drag the selected drawing and drop it directly in the Model view.

‣

From the Model View menu, select Use Current Drawing as Model.

‣

In the Model View toolbar’s extra buttons, click Current Drawing

button.

The model appears in the Model view.

How to browse for a colour model drawing on your hard drive
1. Do one of the following:‣

From the Model View menu, select Import Model.

‣

Click the Import Model‣

Select File > Import > Colour Model.

button or from the Model View’s toolbar.

2. In the Browser window, browse for any *.tvg drawing file on your hard drive.
3. Click Open.

177

Chapter 5: Ink and Paint Importing Models

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:‣

From the Model View menu, select Load Default Model.

‣

In the Model View toolbar’s extra buttons, click the Load Default Modelbutton .

How to load a single drawing from the Library view
1. In the Library view, click the template containing the drawing to import in the Model view.
2. Right-click on the template and select Open As Folder.
3. In the Library view’s left side, select the template’s folder and continuing expanding its subfolders
until *.tvg files appear on the right side.

4. In the Library view’s right side, select the TVG drawing to import and drag it into the Model view.

How to load a template with multiple drawings from the Library view
1. In the Library view, find the template you want to import in the Model view.
2. In the Library view’s right side, drag the template (*.tpl file) and drop it directly in the Model view.
3. Use the Previous Model
and Next Modelbuttons in the Model view’s toolbar to view all
the drawings contained in the template. This can often be the front, profile, and 3/4 views of acharacter.

178

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

How to load a symbol from the Library view
1. In the Library view’s left side, select the Symbols folder.
2. In the Library view’s right side, select the symbol that you want to use as a model, and drag anddrop it directly into the Model view.

3. Use the Previous Model and Next Model buttons in the Model view’s toolbar to view all thedrawings contained in the template. This can often be the front, profile, and 3/4 views of acharacter.

How to clear a colour model‣

In the Model View menu, select Clear Model or press Delete.

How to copy the entire model from the Model view
1. In the Model view’s toolbar, select the Selecttool.

2. In the Model view, select your model.

179

Chapter 5: Ink and Paint Importing Models

3. From the top menu, select Edit > Copy Drawing Object or press Ctrl + C (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ +C (Mac OS X).
4. In the Timeline view, make sure that you have the correct layer and frame selected.
5. Select either the Drawing or Camera view then go to the top menu and select Edit > Paste
Drawing Object, or select the Timeline view and from the top men select Edit > Paste cells in theTimeline or pressCtrl + V (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + V (Mac OS X).
The model now appears in the selected view.

How to copy part of the model from the Model view
1. In the Model view’s toolbar, select the Cutter

tool or press Alt + T.

2. In the Model view, use the Cutter tool to create a selection around the part of your model that you
want to copy.

3. From the top menu, select Edit > Copy Drawing Object or press Ctrl + C (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ +C (Mac OS X).
4. In the Timeline view, make sure you have the correct layer and frame selected.
5. Do one of the following:‣

Select the Drawing or Camera view and select Edit > Paste Drawing Object.

‣

Select the Timeline view and select Edit > Paste cells in the Timeline or press Ctrl + V(Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + V (Mac OS X).

The model appears in the selected view.

180Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

Editing Gradients and Textures

If you paint a zone with a gradient or texture colour, you can use the Edit Gradient/Texture tool tomodify 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 can select the next texture and paste the previous position tocontinue the modifications.
If you are painting a hand-drawn animation or if your want the Brush tool and Paint tool to use yourgradient’s position, angle and scale settings instead of the default ones, you can store your own
settings and reuse them afterward.
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 andthen edit both elements 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 Camera or Drawing View menu, select Drawing 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.

181

Chapter 5: Ink and Paint Importing Models

3. Edit the gradient or texture by adjusting the control handles around the selection frame.

How to store your gradient and texture settings
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Selecttool or press Alt + S.

2. In the Camera or 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 Camera or 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‣

From the top menu, Drawing > Drawing Tools > Pencil Editor.

‣

Press Alt + W.

tool.

2. Click on the pencil line to be modified to bring up its contour envelope.

182

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

3. Select one of the contour points around the envelope and move its position to change the size ofthe tiled texture or gradient. You can also pull directly on the lines of the contour envelope or playwith 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 tolook squashed.
Reducing the contour’s width perpendicular to the pencil line’s central vector will reduce thenumber of tiles, 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. In the Tools toolbar, select the Edit Gradient/Texture
tool. You can also select this tool fromthe top menu under Drawing > Tools > Edit Gradient/Texture or press Shift + F3.
2. Click on the pencil line to be modified to bring up the editor controls.

183

Chapter 5: Ink and Paint Importing Models

3. The editor controls delineate a single tile in the texture. For gradients, this is less applicable. Pullon 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 them vertically gives no visual result.

184

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

How to use Edit Gradient/Texture tool to edit both the texture and the gradient of a
pencil line
1. Do one of the following:‣

In the Tools toolbar, select the Edit Gradient/Texture‣

From the top menu, Drawing > Drawing 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.

185

Chapter 5: Ink and Paint Importing Models

Closing Gaps

When painting, you may notice that some drawing areas are not closed. To close the zone, you caneither draw the missing 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 > Show Strokes or press K to see a preview of the result.
option in the Tool Properties view if you want the strokes you draw to
2. Enable the Auto-Flatten
be flattened in your drawing instead of being on top.
3. From the top menu, select Drawing > Clean Up > Close Gaps or pressShift + F10 (Windows/Linuxonly).
The Close Gaps dialog box opens.
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 andclick OK.
6. In the Tools toolbar, select the Close Gaps

tool.

7. In the Camera or Drawing view, trace a line near the gap to be closed. Your strokes will be invisible
The gap automatically closes.

186

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)187

Chapter 5: Ink and Paint Protecting Colours

Protecting Colours
When you are finished painting some zones, you can protect the colour swatch they are associatedwith, so the work cannot be accidentally painted over.
When you are done inking one colour, you can lock it so that if you ever paint over it accidentally, thework 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:‣

Right-click and select Protect Colour.

‣

From the Colour view 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
can protect a colour swatch 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 you will repaint or unpaintthe protected colours on your drawings until you enable the option again.

How to toggle the Respect Protected Colours option
Do one of the following:‣

Paint tool properties, click the Respect Protected Colour‣

From the top menu, select Drawing > Colour Protection > Respect Colour Protection.

‣

Press Shift + S.

button.

Highlighting the Selected Colour
The Highlight Selected Colour option is used to identify colour swatch used in a drawing. For example,
if you have unnamed colours in your palette and want to know if a particular colour was used on thecurrent model or drawing, you can select the colour and use the Highlight Selected Colour option.
Harmony will dim all the colours in the drawing except the selected one, so it stands out and can be
identified. You can rename it accordingly.

188Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

How to use the Highlight Selected Colour option
1. In the Colour view, select the colour you want to highlight.
2. From the Camera or Drawing menu, select View > Show > 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 be faster 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 Camera or Drawing View menu, select Edit > Invert Selection‣

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

189

Chapter 5: Ink and Paint Inking the Lines

Inking the Lines
Some animation styles require you to paint the lines, a process also be called inking. To ink your lines,
you must be in Line Art mode. You can repaint any type of lines including the texture lines—see Art
Layers on page 162.
Unless you are repainting all of the lines on the whole 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 are
not supposed to be painted.
These are the main tools used to ink the lines:•

Repaint Tool•

Repaint Brush Tool•

Ink Tool•

Protecting Colours•

Breaking Triangles

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 thewhole drawing, only the relevant segment.

The Repaint Brush tool is used to paint a section by manually painting over the lines. This is usefulwhen the vectorization 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, theRepaint 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 flattens automatically. The brush strokes are not added one
on top of each other.

When you are done 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

190

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)colours if you painted all of the animation in Line Art and you plan to repaint the lines—see Protecting
Colours on page 188.
The Brush tool is often the most intuitive and rapid tool for creating rough sketches and clean lines. A
single colour, such as black, is often used when tracing a clean version of a rough sketch. However,when it comes time to soft trace the lines in different colours, the flattened or unflattened clean brushstrokes can suddenly become time consuming to ink.
Toon Boom Harmony lets you create triangular breaks at natural line intersections. These
intersections are the probable locations where colour line breaks may occur, such as where a sleevemeets a hand.
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, such as the one below, and you use the Paint tool to paint one of the lines, the entire
line is painted.

However, if you select the Inktool instead and click on the same pencil line, only the segment thatyou 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 wasbehind all other pencil strokes before it was inked.

That is, unless you hold down Alt while clicking a segment. Then the opposite becomes true. The inked
segment will be sent to the back, even if it was in front of all other segments to begin with.

191

Chapter 5: Ink and Paint Inking the Lines

Painting and Inking can be used in combination depending on what it is that you need to paint. If you
need to ink a character’s outline in black, it might be easier to use the Paint tool. If you need to paintthe outline of a character’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 select the Repaint Tool
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Repainttool located in the Paint tool drop-down menu.

How to select the Repaint Brush
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Brushtool.

2. In the Tool Properties view, enable the Repaint Brushmode.

How to select the Ink Tool
1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Inktool located in the Paint tool drop-down menu.

How to protect colours
1. In the Colour view, select a colour to lock.

2. Do one of the following:

192

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)‣

Right-click and select Protect Colour.

‣

From the Colour view menu, select Colours > Protect Colour.

A red bar appears beside the colour to indicate that it is locked.

How to create breaking triangles on a drawing
1. In the Drawing or Camera view, use the Selectbroken.

tool to select part or all of the drawing to be

2. From the top menu, select Drawing > Create Breaking Triangles. If your brush strokes are notflattened, they will be flattened automatically before the breaking occurs.

3. Use the Repaint tool

to paint the outline of different colour zones with different colours.

193Chapter 5: Ink and Paint Inking the Lines

194

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

Verifying the Zones are Painted
When the ink and paint process is completed, it is always a good idea to verify that every zone waspainted properly.
The first step to check your ink and paint is to go through all your drawings and verify that there are nocolour mistakes. You can use the F and G keyboard shortcuts or the Preview option available in the
Xsheet.
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 preview drawings from the Xsheet
1. First, save your scene.
2. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select File> Save.

‣

Click the Save‣

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

button.

3. In the Xsheet view, select the range of drawings or the whole column to preview.

4. In the Xsheet View menu, select View > Preview Selected Drawings or press Alt + P.
The Play window opens.

195Chapter 5: Ink and Paint Verifying the Zones are Painted

5. Play your drawings.

6. Select the Preroll option to see blank frames at the beginning and end of the animation sequence
while looping the playback.

How to use the backlight

This feature is only available in the Drawing view.

1. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select View > Backlight.

‣

In the Drawing View 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. From the Camera
or Drawing View menu , select View > Switch to Colour Art or press L.
3. In the Art Layer toolbar, click the Preview All Art Layers
button to see the colour zones withlines to ensure that you did not forget any spots between the colour filling and lines.

196

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)197

Chapter 5: Ink and Paint Ink and Paint Tool Properties

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 below•

Paint Tool Properties on the facing page

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 the type of selection the current tool
will perform. The default selection mode isMarquee.
•Lassolets you draw a custom selection
box around zones.

•

Marqueebox.

makes a rectangle selection

Hold down the Alt key to switch
to the opposite mode of yourselection.

Lasso and Marquee

How to invert a selection
1. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Edit >Invert Selection.

‣

From the Camera or Drawing
menu, select Edit > Invert
Selection.

‣

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

Highlights all pencil lines (no brush strokes)
on the selected layer. Pencil line segmentsthat are already inked with the selectedswatch colour from the colour palette arealso not highlighted.

Show Inkable Lines198

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

As you hover and move the cursor acrossintersecting pencil lines, the path that you
create will be highlighted. When you click on
your mouse or stylus the highlighted
segments are inked.
Be Smart on Connecting Lines

With this option disabled, all the intersecting
segments that your cursor comes near will
be highlighted and become part of theselection, even if they were not situated in
the direction of the chosen path.
Note: This option only works if the Ink tool
is in Hover mode.

Select ModeUse thismode instead of the Hover
Mode. In the Hover Mode, any potentiallyinkable pencil line will have its central vectorline highlighted as the Ink tool’s cursor
hovers over it. Use Ctrl (Windows/Linux) or⌘ (Mac OS X) to toggle between the twomodes.

Select Newly Painted,
Repainted, Unpainted
Contours and Lines

Keeps a selection highlighted around thelatest painted zone after using the Paint,
Repaint, Unpaint, or Paint Unpainted tool.

Arrange Ink Lines

Brings all newly-inked lines to the front. Disable thisoption if you want all newly-inked lines to be sent tothe back. Press Alt to toggle between the two options.
As you hover over two perpendicular ornearly perpendicular segments, ahighlighted path with a corner is created.
Clicking on these highlighted segments inks
both segments and makes them appear as asingle stroke with a corner or bend.

Mitre

Click the Mitre
button to choose from
As is, Round, Mitre, and Bevel.

Lets you customize the edge of the Ink tool.
Options include: Round, Flat, and Bevel.
Tip Style

Paint Tool Properties
When you select the Paint tool, its properties and options appears in the Tools Properties view.

199

Chapter 5: Ink and Paint Ink and Paint Tool Properties

Icon

Tool
Lasso and Marquee below
Painting Modes below
Paint and Remove Texture on page 202
Apply to Multiple Drawings on page 202
Apply to All Visible Drawings on page 203Apply to All Visible
Drawings on page 203
Respect Protected Colour on page 203
Use Stored Colour Gradient on page 204
Select Newly Painted/Repainted/Unpainted Contours/Lines on
page 204
Automatic Close Gap on page 204

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

lets you draw a custom selection box around zones.

•

Marqueemakes a rectangle selection box.

Hold down the Alt key to switch to the opposite mode of your selection.

How to invert a selection
1. Do one of the following:‣

From the top menu, select Edit > Invert Selection.

‣

From the Camera or Drawing menu, select Edit > Invert Selection.

‣

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

Painting Modes
The Paint tool has four different modes available:

200Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

You can also find these tools directly in the Tools toolbar and in the Drawing Tools menu.

Paint Mode

The Paintmode paints everything it touches, including empty and filled zones.

Paint Unpainted Mode

The Paint Unpainted

mode paints only empty zones. Any line or filled zone will remain unchanged.

Repaint Mode

The Repaintmode paints everything it touches except empty zones. Any zone that is not painted
will remain intact.

201

Chapter 5: Ink and Paint Ink and Paint Tool Properties

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 and Remove Texture option transforms the bitmap filling into a 100%
vector based zone and fills it with a solid colour.

Apply to Multiple Drawings

202Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

The Apply to Multiple Drawings
option is used for fast painting in hand-drawn animation. When
you want to paint several drawings in a same layer at once, such as a walk cycle, you can enable thisoption and make a selection in your Camera or Drawing view. All the closed zones located within your
Paint tool selection are painted with the selected 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
the current frames. If you have a character broken in several layers, you can enable this option to paint
all your layers 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.

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
some colour 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 the protected colours on your drawings until you enable the option again—see Protecting
Colours on page 188.

203

Chapter 5: Ink and Paint Ink and Paint Tool Properties

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 your are painting. If you want the Paint tool to use a particular sizeand position, you must first store your desired position and size using the Selecttool and thenenable the Use Stored Colour Gradientoption in the Paint tool Tool Properties view—see Editing
Gradients and Textures on page 181.

Select Newly Painted/Repainted/Unpainted Contours/Lines

In the Paint tool Tool Properties view, enabling this option
will keep a selection highlighted
around the latest painted zone after using the Paint, Repaint, Unpaint, or Paint Unpainted tool.

Automatic Close Gap
The Automatic Close Gap option has four modes available:

204Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

The Automatic Close Gap
options are used while painting drawings with small gaps.
Instead of having to close them manually with the Brush tool or Close Gap tool, Toon Boom Harmony
will analyze the drawing and close the gaps while you paint according to the selected mode. The
automated gap closing should be done using the zoom function setting of your Camera or Drawing
view. If your eye does not see the gap, Toon Boom Harmony won’t either—see Closing Gaps on
page 186.

205

Glossary

Ink and Paint Tool Properties

Glossaryalpha channel

The image's channel carrying the transparency information. An
image already has three channels: red, green and blue (RGB). The
alpha channel is the fourth channel (RGBA). The matte, or thetransparency information, is stored 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 attimes, the characters are placed on a trajectory to indicate motion.
The camera moves are also animated. The animatic is used todetermine the rhythm of a project and provides a good overview ofthe project before beginning production.

animation

A simulation of movement created by displaying a series of pictures
or frames.

anime

An animation style known for its sinister and dark feel; popular inJapan.

arc

Action rarely occurs in a straight-forward manner; rather it typicallyunfolds in what storytellers refer to as an arc. The purpose of astory arc is to move a character or a 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 thescanner 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.
For 2D graphics, there are two axes:

axis

•

X: Horizontal•

Y: Vertical

For 3D graphics, there are three axes:•

X: Horizontal•

Y: Vertical•

Z: Depthbackground

The part of a scene that is farthest to the rear. The background is
the artwork, or decor, against which the animation takes place.

Bézier

A method of defining curved lines invented by French206

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)mathematician Pierre Bézier. A Bézier curve is a mathematical orparametric curve. Bézier curves use at least three points to define acurve.
In Toon Boom, a function can be hooked to a Bézier curve and varyalong with the curve value information. Bézier curves are also very
useful in vector graphics. They are used to model smooth curves
and can be scaled indefinitely.
bitmapAn image composed of pixels with a single resolution (size). If it isenlarged too much, it will lose definition and pixels will begin toappear. This is known as pixelation.
In cut-out animation, breakdown is the action of breaking acharacter into pieces to create a puppet with articulations. To
break down a character, the artist cuts part, such as hands andarms, from the character's model and pastes them in separate
layers. Next, the joints are fixed and the pivots set.

breakdown

In traditional animation, a breakdown is an animation pose
generally found between two key poses. The key poses are themain poses in an animation and the breakdowns are secondary
poses, ones that help to describe the motion and the rotation
curve.

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.

captionIn a storyboard, a caption is a text field containing dialogue,
effects, sound, or slugging information.

cel

In traditional animation, a cel, also known as a celluloid, is atransparent sheet on which the animation is inked and painted
before being sent to the camera.The picture's outline is drawn on
the front of the cel and then coloured along the back.
In Toon Boom, a cel is an individual space encountered in an
Xsheet's column, from which you can expose a drawing or afunction`s coordinate.

character design

Each character in an animated film is drawn from multiple angles inposter-style format, called a model sheet, which serves as areference for the animators.

clean up

After rough drawings have been tested and approved, all the noisein the image (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 toachieve the final version, or removing dirt and extra lines left by thescanning process.

CMYK

Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black. Refers to the process used byprinters to define colour on the printed page.

colour card

A Colour Card is a solid colour card that is the same size as thecamera. The Colour Card can be used to fill the background with asolid colour when there is no background image included.

207

Glossary

Ink and Paint Tool Properties

colour model

In animation, a colour model is 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
to create the final result prior to rendering. For example, thecompositing artist will import all the animation sequences,background, overlays and underlays in the scene and position themcorrectly. The artist will then set the camera frame and animate it, if
needed. Finally, the animator will create all the computergenerated 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 no transition effects inserted to pass from one scene to thenext. The first scene ends and the second one starts immediately.

cut-out animation

The action of animating characters made of several pieces bymoving them around frame by frame. Cut-out animation can either
be computer 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 oftime. It can be a series of 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 the sequence and timing of images, dialogue, sound effects,
sound tracks and camera moves. Also known as an exposure sheet
or Xsheet.

dopingTo assig a particular drawing to a range of frames.

DPI

Dots Per Inch is the standard measure of resolution forcomputerized printers. It is sometimes applied to screens, in whichcase it should more accurately be referred to as pixels per inch.
Either way, the dot is the smallest discrete element making up theimage.

ease/velocity

In animation, the ease, also known as velocity, is the accelerationand deceleration of a motion. It can be a motion created by afunction curve, or a series of animated drawings. Other common
terms for ease-in and ease-out are slow-in and slow-out.

ease-in

Gradual acceleration in the action. Another common term for easein is slow-in.

ease-out

Gradual deceleration in the action. Another common term for easeout is slow-out.

establishing shot

A scene in which the viewer can see the whole area in which asequence is happening. For example, if a child is playing on the
ground in front of his house, the establishing shot would be a scene

208Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)where the viewer can see the house, the ground, a part of thestreet and the buildings around the central point of action. This
helps the viewer understand the story location and sceneorientation.
exposure

In animation, an exposure is the number of cels on which a drawing
appears in the scene. For a drawing to appear longer, theexposure must be extended over a greater number of cels.
The exposure sheet or Xsheet, is a sheet with several verticalcolumns and horizontal frames used to indicate a scene's timing.

exposure sheet (Xsheet)

Each column represents a scene's layer. In each column, thedrawing's numbers are indicated and repeated over the particularamount of frames they need to appear.
The exposure sheet is used by animators, directors and othermembers of a crew 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 asequence. 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 calculatemotion, 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

Use this resolution setting for the widescreen film format that
conforms to the standard 4:3 pixel aspect ratio.

film-1.66

Use this resolution setting for the widescreen film format that
conforms to the 16:9 pixel aspect ratio. (The pixels are wider thanthey are high).

flipping

In traditional animation, flipping is the action of going through thedrawings of an animation sequence very quickly in order to see theanimation in motion. Flipping can also be the action of creating amirror transformation of an object.

follow-throughThe follow-through is the secondary motion caused by the main
action. For example, a character wearing a cloak is running. The
main action is the body running. This will cause the cloak to follow
the motion, although it will not move at the same time, but react a
few frames later and follow the main motion curve.

forward kinematics

Forward kinematics is a feature used to animate principally 3D
characters and cut-out puppets with hierarchy. It is used to animate

209

Glossary

Ink and Paint Tool Properties

a puppet from one of parent parts, such as a shoulder, and makethe rest of the arm move with it as a single piece.

frame

A frame is a single photographic image in a movie. In traditional
animation, the North American standard generally contains 24
frames per second, while in Europe the standard is 25 frames per
second.
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

Frame rate is most often expressed in frames per second (FPS) andin progressive-scan monitors as hertz (Hz).
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 be played back at 12, 24, 25, 30 or 60 frames per second or
any other number

functions

A function is a computer generated motion, trajectory or path thatelements, other trajectories and effects parameters can be
attached to. The function can be controlled 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 thanstandard television does because it has a greater number of linesof resolution. To take advantage of the superior quality and makefull use of your resolution setting, your output device must becompatible with HDTV technology.

holdThis is 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 ofhue (tint), 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
and colouring the lines on the final animation drawings, while
following a colour model.

interpolation

In animation, the interpolation is the computer generated motion
created between two keyframes. You have the choice to create
interpolation, or not, between your keyframes.

jump cut

A jump cut is a jerky cut between two scenes. Typically, a jump cut
is not visually pleasing. It is generally caused by one scene ending,and a second one starting, with similar a image. The lack ofdifference causes the eye to see a little jump between the twoscenes.

210

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

key pose

Important positions in the action defining the starting and ending
points of any smooth transition. Keys, or key poses, are the maindrawings in an animation sequence describing the motion. For
example, if an arm is waving, the keys will be of the arm at one
extremity of the wave motion and the other extremity. By flipping
those drawings, the animator can see the skeleton of the motion
without having all of the drawings.
One or more keyboard keys which, when used, cause an operation
to be performed. Keyboard shortcuts are used throughout theToon Boom software and form an integral part of the workflow. It
is, in most cases, possible to customize the shortcuts in the
Preferences dialog of the software.

keyboard shortcuts

The shortcuts are written as follows in the Toon Boom user
documentation: Each key in a sequence is shown inside square
brackets as in: [Ctrl]+[A]. The brackets "[ ]" separate the key fromthe plus sign (+). Neither the brackets, nor the plus sign are part ofthe sequence. To use a shortcut, press the key and the character
simultaneously.

keyframe

Important positions in the action defining the starting and ending
points of any action. A keyframe is a computer generated position
at a specific moment (frame) on a given trajectory.

layer

In animation, a layer is an individual column, level or character. A
scene's layers are superposed to form the final image.

layout

The layout process is the communication step between thestoryboard and the animation. The layout and posing process isthe action of putting the storyboard on model, that is drawing thecharacter following the design in the model pack, so that the
animator can start his work. The layout artist will draw thebackground, create the camera and field guide matching the scene
and the camera motion. Lastly, he will draw on model the main
action poses.

layout and posing

The action of putting on model, that is, at the right scale, thestoryboard for the animator to start his work.

library

A library is a storage area containing templates and assets that canbe reused in any project or scenes.

light table

The Light Table feature allows you to see the other layers intransparency while you are working on a particular one in the
Drawing view.

line of action

Direction that the action will follow. Also known as the Path of
Actionlip-sync

The lip-sync is the character`s mouth synchronization with thedialogue sound track. Frame by frame, the mouth will be adjusted
to fit the sound to give the illusion of the character is speaking.

low resolution

This format is ideal for videos destined for the web, where size andfast download of a video file might take precedence over quality. A
low-resolution image is one that lacks fine detail.

211

Glossary

Ink and Paint Tool Properties

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 soundwave broken up frame-by-frame) and drawing substitutions fromthe Library view are used.

master palette

A master palette is a group of colours attributed to a character ora prop. The palette is used throughout the entire production tomaintain consistency in the look and to ensure that the same
colours are used throughout the production. Also known as
palette.

model/colour model

In animation, a model is the definitive character, prop or location
design that each artist must follow for the production. A colour
model is the official colour design that must be used to paint the
animation.

motion keyframe

In Toon Boom, the motion keyframe is a keyframe with computergenerated interpolation.

mouth chart

Adding a lip-sync to a project can really enhance its quality andstorytelling. However, it can be difficult to shape a character's
mouth so that it matches the sound at the precise frame. To solve
this problem, Toon Boom provides a lip-sync feature whichanalyses the contents of a sound element and generates a mouth
chart based on the eight animation phonemes (A, B, C, D, E, F, G,
and X, which is used to represent silence).

multiplane

The effect of passing through multiple levels of drawings to createa sense of depth in a shot. A multiplane is a scene in which thelayers are placed at different distances from the camera so thatwhen the camera moves, a depth illusion occurs. With a multiplane,
all the perspective and scale is calculated automatically.

NTSC

The standard analogue television broadcasting system used in
North America. NTSC conforms to North American standards on
how rectangular pixels are displayed for computer and televisionscreens.

nudge

A small push (left, right, up, down, forward or backward) donewith the keyboard arrow keys on a selected element. Nudging isused to move a selection very slightly and precisely.

onion skin

A feature that lets you see the previous and next drawings of asequence.

overlay

A part of the scene environment, such as a chair or a bush, that isplaced in front of the main animation.

PAL

A resolution that works best with the European format for
television and computer 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 acharacter or a prop. The palette is used throughout the entire
project to maintain a consistency in the look and avoid the colourchanging during the animation. Also referred to as a master
palette.

212

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

palette style

A palette style is a second version of an existing palette with aslight change in the tint and value. A palette style can be used tocreate 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 becomposed of one or several panels.

paperless animation/tradigital

The paperless animation process is the action of animating
digitally. The main paperless animation process is to draw, frameby frame, the animation directly in the software.

passing position

When drawing a walk sequence for a character, the passing
position is the point at which one leg passes the other.

path of action

Direction that the action will follow. Also known as the Line of
Action.

peg

In traditional animation, a tool used to ensure accurate registrationof action as cel layers move. In digital animation, in which you aredoing a more advanced puppet rigging, you can use peg layers.
Peg layers are trajectory layers that do not contain drawings. They
are motion paths that you can use to add path articulations. For
the latter, you can also use the Inverse Kinematics tool.

phoneme

Unit of sound in a language.

pivot

A pivot is the point around which a peg or a drawing rotates.
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 a small sample of an image, a dot, a square, or a very small
section made out of smooth filtering. If you zoom in close enoughon a digital image, you will see the pixels, which look like small
squares of different colours and intensity.

pose-to-pose animation

The pose-to-pose animation process is the action of creating all themain action poses, called key poses, and then placing thesecondary poses between the keys. The secondary poses arecalled breakdown. Finally, the animator fills the gaps with the inbetween drawings to achieve a smooth animation.

rendering

The final step when animating by computer. During rendering, thecomputer takes each pixel that appears on screen and processes
all of the components as well as adding motion blur before it
produces a final image. In animation, the rendering process is theaction of calculating the final images after the compositing
process.

resolution

The resolution is the size of a scene, generally calculated in pixel.
For example, the NTSC resolution is 720 x 480. Resolution typeshould match your final output: HDTV, film-1.33, film-1.66, NTSC,
PAL, low.

RGB

Red, Green, Blue: method of defining colour by specifying amounts

213Glossary

Ink and Paint Tool Propertiesof these three colour components.
rigging

The rigging process is the action of attaching the cut-out puppet
parts one to the other.

rotary table

The Rotary Table is equivalent to the animation disk/table andallows one to rotate the workspace to be more comfortable while
drawing.

rotoscoping

Is an animation technique in which animators trace over live-action
film movement, frame by frame, for use in animated films. The actof sketching over live-action footage to create an animatedsequence.

roughs

The roughs are the skeleton sketch of an animation or a design.
Roughs mainly consist of sketch lines and shapes, though they canalso contain design details.

safey area

In animation and movie parlance, the safey area is the zone at thecentre of the scene's frame, one safe from being cropped by the TV
frame. As a TV frame cuts a margin off the original frame size,
maintaining a safey area ensures that the scene's main action willremain clearly visible once the film is screened on television.

scene

A scene is a shot in a movie or show. A sequence is composed ofseveral scenes. A scene changes to another scene by a simple cut,or a transition.

scriptThe script is the original text containing all the movie or show
information. In animation, the script contains all of the location
descriptions, dialogues, time and more. A project starts with ascript.

sequence

In animation, a sequence is a series of scenes or shots forming a
distinct part of the story or movie, usually connected by unity oflocation or time.

shot

A shot is a scene in a movie or show. A sequence is composed ofseveral shots. A shot changes to another shot by a simple cut, or atransition.

slow-in

Gradual acceleration in the action. Another common term for slowin is ease-in.

slow-out

Gradual deceleration in the action. Another common term for slowout is ease-out.

slugging

In Storyboard Pro, slugging refers to indicating 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 theplayhead forward or backward. This is very useful for finely-tuned
lip-syncing.

stop-motion keyframe

A stop-motion keyframe is 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 and214Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

how the objects in a scene 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 thismethodology, and where the character ends up and how it getsthere can be a surprise for both the audience and the animator.
While this approach is a lot more spontaneous and creative, it cancreate inaccurate results.

strokes

Strokes are invisible vector lines forming the drawing zones. They
can be adjusted with Bézier handles.

tablet/pen

Device used in conjunction with, or instead of, a mouse to move amouse pointer (sometimes referred to as the cursor) around thecomputer screen.

template

In Toon Boom, a template is an asset stored in the library, one thatcan be reused in any project. A template can be a drawing, a seriesof keyframes, a sound file, a panel, a cut-out character, an effect, a
trajectory, an animation, or anything else used in the software.

thumbnails

A thumbnail is a very small image used as a reference or indicator.

timecode

Timecode is timing information printed on a movie clip to indicate
what scene, hour, minute and second is currently displayed on thescreen.

timeline

The timeline is a horizontal representation of the 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 today's digital world, this may be done in a variety
ways other than via the traditional celluloid or acetate methods.

track breakdown

The soundtrack for animated film is broken down into individual
sounds documenting the precise frame-by-frame position of eachsound.

traditional animation

The traditional animation process is the action of drawing on paper
all of the animation sequences, before either scanning them 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 andvelocity.

transition

A transition is an effect placed between two scenes as they passfrom one to the other. Common transition effects are crossdissolve and wipe.

underlay

In animation, an underlay is a specific part of the decor placed
behind the main animation.

aspect ratio

The aspect ratio describes the shape of the grid unit. A square grid
unit would have the ratio 1:1, whereas a grid unit of aspect ratio
4:3 is a unit with one side 1.33 times as big as the other side.

215

Glossary

Ink and Paint Tool Properties

vector

A vector-based image is composed of points and Bézier curves.
The computer reads the points and traces the segments, linking
them to reproduce the image shape. There is no fixed size orresolution in a vector image. The graphic can be enlarged anddistorted as much as desired and the system will simply recalculate
the segments and rebuild the shapes. Vector images are translated
and displayed in pixels once the calculation is done.

velocity/ease

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 a series of animated drawings. Other common terms forease-in and ease-out are slow-in and slow-out.

walk cycle

To avoid making innumerable drawings, animators routinely makea walk cycle for their character. This comprises a series of drawings``on the spot`` that describe the walk for that character. The illusionof movement is created via the use of background pans.

workspace

In Toon Boom, the workspace is made up of the views, toolbars,
and menus.
The Xsheet or exposure sheet, is a sheet with several verticalcolumns and horizontal frames used to indicate a scene's timing.

Xsheet (exposure sheet)

Each column represents a scene's layer. In each column, thedrawing numbers are indicated and spread over the specificamount of frames they need to appear.
The exposure sheet is used by animators, directors and othermembers of a crew to track the sequence and timing of images,
dialogue, sound effects, sound tracks and camera moves. Also
known as a Dope Sheet.

zone

An area which can be painted with colour.

216

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)

IndexAalpha channel_defined 206
animatic_defined 206
animation_defined 206
anime_defined 206
Annotation column 57
changing drawing settings 60
drawing 58
erasing annotations 59-60
importing Annotation file 62
pen colour 61
pen width 60
tick marks, displaying 61
typing 58
annotations
changing drawing settings 60
changing pen colour 61
changing pen width 60
drawing 58
erasing 59-60
typing 58
arc_defined 206
aspect ratio_defined 206
defined 215
auto-feed_defined 206

217

Indexaxis_defined 206
Bbackground_defined 206
backing up
palettes 124
Bezier_defined 206
bitmap images_defined 207
Bitmap layer 43
breakdown_defined 207
C
Camera layer 44
camera shake_defined 207
caption_defined 207
cel_defined 207
celluloid
See cel. 207
character design_defined 207
clean up_defined 207
cloninglayers and columns 56
CMYK_defined 207
Colour-Cardlayer 44

218

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)colour card_defined 207
colour model_defined 212
defined 208
colour palettesback up 124
location 123
colour wheel
defined 208
Column Properties editor
displaying in Xsheet 53
columns
advanced types 46
cloning 56
deleting 50
duplicating 56
modifying 53
properties 52
renaming 54
reordering 55
Timing 63
types 43
Xsheet 42
compositing
defined 208
cross dissolve
defined 208
cut
defined 208
cut-out animation
defined 208
cycle
defined 208

219

IndexD
dialoguedefined 208
dope sheet
defined 208
dopingdefined 208
DPIdefined 208
drawing elements
adding 46
creating 42
duplicating 56
Drawing layer 43
drawings
importing 11
scanning 11Eeasedefined 208
ease-indefined 208
ease-out
defined 208
editors
Column Properties 53
Effect layer 44
Element Manager dialog box
parameters 55
establishing shot
defined 208
exposure_defined 209
exposure sheet_defined 209, 216

220Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)F
fade-in_defined 209
fade-out_defined 209
field_defined 209
field chart_defined 209
film-1.33_defined 209
film-1.66_defined 209
flipping_defined 209
follow-through_defined 209
forward kinematics_defined 209
frame_defined 210
frame rate
_defined 210
frames 39
adding 40
adding before/after selection 39
functions_defined 210
Ggamut_defined 210
H
HDTV_defined 210

221IndexHold_defined 210
HSV_defined 210
Iimporting
Annotation file 62
bitmap drawings 16
drawings 11
in-between_defined 210
ink and paint_defined 210
interpolation_defined 210
Jjump cut_defined 210
K
key pose_defined 211
keyboard shortcuts_defined 211
keyframes_defined 211
L
Layer Properties editor
displaying 53
renaming layers 54
layers 42_defined 211
bitmap 43
camera 44
cloning 56
Colour-Card 44
deleting 50

222

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)drawing 43
duplicating 56
effect 44
Group 44
modifying 53
Peg 45properties 52
Quadmap 45
renaming 54
reordering 54
Sound 45
types 43
layout_defined 211
layout and posing_defined 211
library_defined 211
light table_defined 211
line of action_defined 211
linkingexternal files 63
lip-sync_defined 211
auto detection, defined 206
lip-sync detection
manual, defined 212
low resolution_defined 211
Mmanual lip-sync detection_defined 212

223

Indexmaster palette_defined 212
model_defined 212
model sheet See character design
motion keyframe_defined 212
mouthchart 212
multiplane_defined 212
N
NTSC_defined 212
nudge_defined 212
Oonion skinng_defined 212
overlay_defined 212
PPAL_defined 212
palettes_defined 212
backup 124
location 123
style, defined 213
panel_defined 213
panning_defined 213
paperless animation_defined 213

224

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)passing position_defined 213
path of action_defined 213
Peg layer 45
pegs_defined 213
pen_defined 215
phoneme_defined 213
pivot_defined 213
pixel_defined 213
pixelation See bitmap image
pose-to-pose_defined 213
Q
Quadmap layer 45
Rrendering_defined 213
resolution_defined 213
RGB_defined 213
rigging_defined 214
rotary table_defined 214
rotoscoping_defined 214
roughs_defined 214

225

IndexS
safe area_defined 214
scanning 9
drawings 11
images as bitmap drawings 11
process 10
VectOptions.conf file 28
scenes_defined 214
adding frames before/after selection 39
extending 39-40
reducing length 40
removing frames 40
setting length 39
script_defined 214
scrubbing_defined 214
sequences_defined 214
shot_defined 214
slow-in_defined 214
slow_out_defined 214
slugging_defined 214
soundscrubbing_defined 214
Sound layer 45

226

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)stop-motion keyframe_defined 214
storyboard_defined 214
straight-ahead_defined 215
strokes_defined 215
Ttablet_defined 215
templates_defined 215
thumbnails_defined 215
tick marks, Xsheet
displaying 61
turning off 62
timecode_defined 215
timeline_defined 215
Timeline viewcloning layers and columns 56
modifying layers and columns 53
reducing scene length 40
renaming layers 54
reordering layers 54
timingadding frames before/after selection 39
Annotation column, adding 57
changing drawing settings 60
drawing in Annotation column 58
erasing annotation 59-60

227

Indexextending scenes 39-40
frames 39
importing Annotation file 62
linking external files 63
preparing 37
reducing scene length 40
references 38
removing frames 40
scene length 39
Timing column 63
typing in Annotation column 58
Timing column 63
linking external files 63
using 63
trace and paint_defined 215
track breakdown_defined 215
tradigital_defined 213
traditional animation_defined 215
introduction 7
scanning 9
trajectory_defined 215
transition_defined 215
U
underlay_defined 215
V
VectOptions.conf file 28
Linux 31
Mac 29228

Harmony 11.1 Traditional Animation Guide (Standalone)setting 29
Windows 29
vector_defined 216
vectorization
creating a style 27
parameters, creating 27
parameters, custom 19
parameters, modifying 27
Vectorization Parameters dialog box
Help tab 22
opening 19
Options tab 20
vectorizing
bitmap drawings 16
velocity
defined 208, 216Wwalk cycle_defined 216
workspace_defined 216
X
Xsheettyping in Annotation column 58
Xsheet view
_defined 53, 216
adding frames before/after selection 39
advanced column types 46
Annotation column, adding 57
changing drawing settingss 60
cloning layers and columns 56
columns 42
erasing annotations 59-60
importing Annotation file 62229

Indexlayers 42
modifying layers and columns 53
removing frames 40
renaming columns 54
reordering columns 55
tick marks, displays 61
Timing column 63
Z
zone_defined 216

230