Martin Rose's Animation & Media Notes

Toon Boom Harmony

Links to notes:

Cutout puppets:

Specific Information for Your Creative Projects

Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Tools:
    • Brush: Alt + B
    • Eraser: Alt + E
    • Pencil: Alt + /
    • Select: Alt + S
    • Cutter: Alt + T
    • Zoom In: 2
    • Zoom Out: 1
    • Rotate: Alt + Command + Click
  • Timeline / Animation:
    • Previous Drawing: F
    • Next Drawing: G
    • Move up the Timeline: >
    • Move down the Timeline: <
    • Previous Layer: H
    • Next Layer: J
  • Timing:
    • Increase Exposure: +
    • Decrease Exposure: –
Project Settings

First, before you even begin with a Harmony project, be sure to establish a Project Folder in your computer workspace. That is, make a “production suitcase” that contains important sub-folders and assets at all times:

  • Project Folder
    • Animation
    • Audio
    • Images
    • Movies

You should not leave stuff strewn over a variety of places, in different folders on various disks, etc.

Launch Harmony. With the Premium version (i.e., at school), choose to work “offline.” With Essentials, offline is the only option.

You will start by creating a “New Scene.” From then on, you will Open the scene you initially generated. It’s good practice to open Harmony scenes from this startup window, as the program stores essential documents and data in its own folders. It’s easier to let Harmony look for the project file from its startup window.

To create a New Scene:

  • Name: Give the scene a name
  • Location: Use the “Browse” button to find your Project Folder and then select “Choose.”
  • Camera Size: Select “HDTV_1080p24”
    • Width: 1920
    • Height: 1080
    • Frame Rate: 24
    • Field of View: Vertical
  • Finally, press the “Create Scene” button (near the Name section).
An Important Note

In the Harmony Workspace, the “main stage, canvas, work area,” is called the Top Window. You will notice there are two tabs in the upper-right region of the window: “Camera” and “Drawing.” For most production purposes, make sure to click on, and work with, Camera.

The Top Window is a grey-coloured region, which designates transparency layers. You can add a simple background (colour card) as a bottom layer if need be.

Timeline & Exposure Sheet

As you may have observed, most of the Harmony workspaces include a Timeline (e.g., “Default, Animating, Compositing, or Hand-Drawn,” which can be activated from the Main Menu > Windows > Workspace).Timelines, with layers, frames, playhead, and frame counter are essential production components, with both animation, digital film editing, and compositing software. You will find they all have a timeline of some form.

Harmony is a program designed specifically for 2D animation. It stands out from programs like Adobe After Effects, Animate CC, Premiere, and the like because of specific animation tools and methods.

In the Harmony workspace, you will notice there is a “Xsheet,” or “Exposure Sheet.” This is valuable piece of gear! It is closely linked to the Timeline; they share important tasks and information. For instance, all layers in the Timeline are represented in the Xsheet as columns; all frames in the Timeline are shown as numbered rows in the Xsheet.

Some of the things we utilize Harmony for are easy to do in the Xsheet. For example, it’s convenient to move and rearrange drawings/frames, and to set their timing. Of course, you can use both the Xsheet and Timeline at the same time interchangeably.

Drawings
To Add a Colour Card

Referring to the Layers region in the left part of the Timeline, click and hold down on the plus sign [+] context menu and choose Colour-Card. By doing so, the Top Window should then take on a colour, with a grid of grey squares. The blocks are temporary and only appear when the Colour-Card Layer is selected.

To change the colour, find the Colour-Card Layer and double click to open the Layer Properties. From there, choose/click the colour swatch at the lower region of the Properties Window to open a Colour Picker. From there, move the curser to select a colour you would like. You will see the various RGB (Red, Green, and Blue), HSV (Hue, Saturation, and Value) and Alpha (transparency) values. Close the windows once you are satisfied with a colour, and you can return to the Colour Picker later if you want to change the Colour Card. It affects the whole layer.

To Add a Solid Colour Background

Different from a layer-based colour-card, you might want to situate a colour in a specific region of the Timeline or to change it frame-by-frame. To do this, you can make a solid region, a Rectangle, that fills the frame.

There are a few simple things to set up before you do so.

First, select a colour for the large rectangular shape (which you can change later if need be). Go to the Colour Window. You can either select an existing colour from the default list or you can make a new one by clicking the “plus-sign [+]” Add Colour icon. After that, double-click on the “New” swatch to open the Colour Picker and choose a suitable colour. You can also type a name for the colour.

Second, go to the Tools and choose the Rectangle (bundled with Line, Ellipse, and Polyline). Once you’ve selected it, go to the Tool Properties Window (in the same section as Colour and Library). From the Tool Properties Window, click and activate the Auto Fill Button at the lower edge of the window.

Third, return to the Tools, select the Rectangle Tool, find a place in the Top Window to draw, and then sketch the height and width of the desired rectangle. The software will add the Rectangle.

You can then refine the size and proportions of the Rectangle. Referring to the Tools, choose the Select Tool and click on the rectangle in the Top Window. This will activate a Bounding Box. Click on each edge to adjust the scale, width, and height, and click and drag to reposition. To fill the frame, or to go beyond, drag and scale beyond the black-line dimensions of the frame.

To change the colour of the background, use the Paint Tool. Referring to the Tools, select the Paint Tool (or, Main Menu > Drawing Tools > Paint). Go to the Tools Window, select a default colour or make a new one. In the Top Window, click the object you would like to paint. This action will “fill” the rectangle.

Exposures
  • Increase Exposure: [ + ] on the keyboard
  • Decrease Exposure:[ – ] on the keyboard
  • Extend Exposure
  • Fill Empty Cells
  • Insert Blank Cell
  • Fill Selection
  • Sequence Fill
Links to Notes on Working with Audio
To Export a Movie or Image Sequence
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