Toonboom Harmony

Educational License

You should be given free access this semester through your UNCG email so you shouldn't need to buy anything.

However, this is for if you're still a student at some point and for some reason you need to purchase it with a student discount. First, you should be able to download a free trial for for 3 weeks. After that trial period, there are student discounts, and there are three versions of Harmony at three prices.

Harmony Essentials: It's cheaper, but I don't recommend this version. It's missing too many important features.

Harmony Advanced: $10 a month for students. This version is good if you are interested in traditional 2D animation and do not intend to use the node view or explore 2D rigging.

Harmony Premium: $18 a month for students. It has the Node View which is a feature that is necessary for character rigging, compositing, and animating two tone characters with shadows. 

Link to the Download is here (Check the monthly option if you want to do monthly licensing):

https://shop.toonboom.com/en/students

Toonboom Helpful Shortcuts. It is important to note that you can customize your own shortcuts under the Preferences Menu.

1) 1 & 2 = Zoom in & Zoom Out. This works on both the Timeline Panel and the Canvas.

2) Spacebar (or H) = Hand Tool. Move and pan the canvas. 

3) Hold Command + Option = Rotate Canvas

4) Shift + M = Brings your canvas back to full size

5) . & , = Go back and forth by one frame on the Timeline

6) K = Reveal Stroke

7) Press + or - (must be the Number Pad) = Extend or decrease the duration of a drawing by a frame.

Saving & Managing Toonboom Projects

ToonBoom  Preferences Setup (Short Video):

These are two preferences I recommend enabling. Especially the "Focus on Mouse Enter" Setting, enabling that will make using the 1 & 2 keys to zoom in and out much easier.

Toonboom: Import Audio & Images

Create a Color Palette & Coloring in a Basic Character

0:00 - Create Color Palette

3:55 - Copy Line Art Strokes into the Colour Art Layer

4:45 - Fill in Color. Paint bucket Tool & Stroke Tool for problem solving

Add Color Gradient in Toonboom

X Sheets in Toonboom

Once you get the hang of using X Sheets in Harmony, it's not too complicated and can be a useful panel, particularly in scenes with dialogue or acting. Historically, the X Sheet is a staple of the professional animation pipeline, and is a helpful tool when collaborating and communicating ideas to other animators, inbetweeners, and cleanup artists. You can also use the X Sheet to dive deeper into your Onion Skin settings.

This first video explains how to export a Quicktime (H.264) file from Toonboom Harmony and loop it using After Effects for a quick render of your work. The loop aspect is helpful for walk cycles.

There are two ways to export a movie from Harmony with a transparent background, which is necessary if you plan to composite your animation into a larger environment.

1. For Vector Drawing Layers:

   • Go to the Top Bar > File > Export > SWF
     Exporting as an SWF is ideal for vector-based animations because it allows you to zoom in without pixelation. This format is also compatible with After Effects. HOWEVER, if your vector pencil or brush has texture, it won't come out in the render. This only works for super clean lines.

2. For Bitmap Layers:

   • If you’ve created your animation using bitmap layers, use the export technique demonstrated in the video below to ensure transparency when compositing in programs like After Effects.