Harmony 25 Release Notes

Harmony 25., build 23967 (2025-06-05)

New Features

Drawing Tools

Feature	Description
Pencil Retouch Tool	The Pencil Retouch Tool is a new brush-like tool that can raise or lower the opacity and increase and decrease the width of pencil lines by drawing over them. The tool has two modes: Adjust Thickness and Adjust Opacity . Each mode has four modes of operations: Increase, Decrease, Replace and Smooth. Increase: Increases the opacity or thickness of the portion of the pencil line that is touched. Decrease: decreases the opacity or thickness of the portion of the pencil line that is touched. Replace: Replaces the opacity or thickness of the portion of the pencil line that is touched, as if the user was drawing a new line. Smooth: The opacity or thickness of the line is evened out using the average opacity or thickness within a range around the cursor position. A slider allows the user to define the range around the cursor that is used to determine the average value. As the user moves the tool over the stroke, the average is taken from the sample area and applied where the circle touches the stroke.
Importing Photoshop Brushes	Photoshop Brushes from .abr files can now be imported into Harmony. It is important to note that Harmony and Photoshop brushes are not the same. Some parameters work differently between them and Photoshop has additional parameters that are not supported by Harmony. Brushes imported into Harmony may not behave exactly the same as they do in Photoshop. Photoshop brushes can be imported to the Brush and Eraser tools and are imported in Harmony the same way as Toon Boom brush presets are imported. From the Brush or Eraser tool Tool Properties view, click the menu and select “Import Brushes…”.

Feature

Description

Pencil Retouch Tool

The Pencil Retouch Tool is a new brush-like tool that can raise or lower the opacity and increase and decrease the width of pencil lines by drawing over them. The tool has two modes: Adjust Thickness and Adjust Opacity . Each mode has four modes of operations: Increase, Decrease, Replace and Smooth.

Increase: Increases the opacity or thickness of the portion of the pencil line that is touched.
Decrease: decreases the opacity or thickness of the portion of the pencil line that is touched.
Replace: Replaces the opacity or thickness of the portion of the pencil line that is touched, as if the user was drawing a new line.
Smooth: The opacity or thickness of the line is evened out using the average opacity or thickness within a range around the cursor position. A slider allows the user to define the range around the cursor that is used to determine the average value. As the user moves the tool over the stroke, the average is taken from the sample area and applied where the circle touches the stroke.

Importing Photoshop Brushes

Photoshop Brushes from .abr files can now be imported into Harmony.

It is important to note that Harmony and Photoshop brushes are not the same. Some parameters work differently between them and Photoshop has additional parameters that are not supported by Harmony. Brushes imported into Harmony may not behave exactly the same as they do in Photoshop.

Photoshop brushes can be imported to the Brush and Eraser tools and are imported in Harmony the same way as Toon Boom brush presets are imported. From the Brush or Eraser tool Tool Properties view, click the menu and select “Import Brushes…”.

Animation

Feature	Description
Lock Timeline Ruler	The position of timeline scene markers and the scene length can now be locked to prevent accidentally moving them. The command is named Lock Timeline Ruler and is located in the Timeline Ruler’s right click menu.
Action Template Palette Preference	A new preference is available that lets you choose how palettes are managed when importing an action template into a scene. The preference named Action Templates is located on the Template tab of the preference and is set to Do Nothing by default. In this setting, palettes will not be copied to the scene when bringing an action template over frames in the right part of the timeline. This prevents accidentally polluting scenes with extra palettes.

Feature

Description

Lock Timeline Ruler

The position of timeline scene markers and the scene length can now be locked to prevent accidentally moving them. The command is named Lock Timeline Ruler and is located in the Timeline Ruler’s right click menu.

Action Template Palette Preference

A new preference is available that lets you choose how palettes are managed when importing an action template into a scene.

The preference named Action Templates is located on the Template tab of the preference and is set to Do Nothing by default. In this setting, palettes will not be copied to the scene when bringing an action template over frames in the right part of the timeline. This prevents accidentally polluting scenes with extra palettes.

OpenGL and Performance

Feature	Description
Better OpenGL Effect Preview	The OpenGL view mode of the Camera view now supports the preview of additional effects as well as enhanced rendering of previously supported effects. The following preferences are available in the OpenGL tab of the Preferences to enable the preview of different types of effects as well as wetting the quality of the previews: Render Effects. This preference enables or enhances the preview of the following effects: Glow Highlight Shadow Tone Transparency Render Blurs. This preference enables the preview rendering of the following blurs: Blur (Blur Radial) Blur Gaussian The following choices are available to adjust the rendering quality of blur effects: Best Quality Better Quality Regular Quality Better Performance Best Performance Render Blending Mode. This preference enabled the preview rendering of the Blending effect node. Render Realistic Cutter. This preference improves the preview quality of cutters by enabling support of semi transparent pixels in the drawing that is used as the matte.
Anti-Aliasing Quality Options	Two anti-aliasing modes are now available in the OpenGL tab of the preferences. The Quality anit-aliasing mode provides high quality anti-aliased results at the cost of the preview performance. This is the anti-aliasing mode that was used in previous versions of Harmony. The Performance anti-aliasing mode provides a lower quality anti-aliased preview while having little impact to no impact on playback and interactive performance. This anti-aliasing mode is new in Harmony 25.

Feature

Description

Better OpenGL Effect Preview

The OpenGL view mode of the Camera view now supports the preview of additional effects as well as enhanced rendering of previously supported effects.

The following preferences are available in the OpenGL tab of the Preferences to enable the preview of different types of effects as well as wetting the quality of the previews:

Render Effects. This preference enables or enhances the preview of the following effects:

Glow
Highlight
Shadow
Tone
Transparency

Render Blurs. This preference enables the preview rendering of the following blurs:

Blur (Blur Radial)
Blur Gaussian

The following choices are available to adjust the rendering quality of blur effects:

Best Quality
Better Quality
Regular Quality
Better Performance
Best Performance

Render Blending Mode. This preference enabled the preview rendering of the Blending effect node.

Render Realistic Cutter. This preference improves the preview quality of cutters by enabling support of semi transparent pixels in the drawing that is used as the matte.

Anti-Aliasing Quality Options

Two anti-aliasing modes are now available in the OpenGL tab of the preferences.

The Quality anit-aliasing mode provides high quality anti-aliased results at the cost of the preview performance. This is the anti-aliasing mode that was used in previous versions of Harmony.

The Performance anti-aliasing mode provides a lower quality anti-aliased preview while having little impact to no impact on playback and interactive performance. This anti-aliasing mode is new in Harmony 25.

File Data Optimizations

Feature	Description
Compact File Structure	In order to reduce the number of files stored on disk, a new scene format has been introduced in Harmony 25. The Compact File Structure saves drawings and palettes into a single file in the scene folder, reducing file count, optimizing storage space and reducing network transfer times. Other files in the scene folder have the same structure as before. To create a new scene using the Compact File Structure, select the Use compact file structure checkbox when in the New Scene dialog. A preference is also available on the General tab to define the default settings when creating a new scene when working in Offline mode. In Database mode, the default file structure used when creating new scenes can be set per Environment in the Control Center application. Scene can be converted to and from this new file structure from the Advanced tab of the Scene Settings dialog. Use the Compact button to convert the to compact file structure and use the Uncompact button to use the previous format. Note that scenes saved using this new file structure are not compatible with previous versions of Harmony.
Optimize Palettes	The new Optimize Palettes command in the File > Optimize menu can be used to merge or remove and delete palettes and colours that are not used in the current scene.
Optimize Drawings	The new Optimize Drawings command in the File > Optimize can be used to delete unused drawings and consolidate identical drawings, providing an easy way to reduce the file count of a scene.

Feature

Description

Compact File Structure

In order to reduce the number of files stored on disk, a new scene format has been introduced in Harmony 25. The Compact File Structure saves drawings and palettes into a single file in the scene folder, reducing file count, optimizing storage space and reducing network transfer times. Other files in the scene folder have the same structure as before.

To create a new scene using the Compact File Structure, select the Use compact file structure checkbox when in the New Scene dialog.

A preference is also available on the General tab to define the default settings when creating a new scene when working in Offline mode.

In Database mode, the default file structure used when creating new scenes can be set per Environment in the Control Center application.

Scene can be converted to and from this new file structure from the Advanced tab of the Scene Settings dialog. Use the Compact button to convert the to compact file structure and use the Uncompact button to use the previous format.

Note that scenes saved using this new file structure are not compatible with previous versions of Harmony.

Optimize Palettes

The new Optimize Palettes command in the File > Optimize menu can be used to merge or remove and delete palettes and colours that are not used in the current scene.

Optimize Drawings

The new Optimize Drawings command in the File > Optimize can be used to delete unused drawings and consolidate identical drawings, providing an easy way to reduce the file count of a scene.

Ember Functionalities

Ember functionalities are disabled by default in Harmony. Ember functionalities require an additional Ember license as well as enabling the “Enable Ember Functionalities” preference in the Advanced tab of the Preferences.

Improvements

General

A Store Recovery Textures in Vector Files option has been added to Harmony's preferences. When disabled, copies of all associated textures will no longer be stored in TVG files. This can drastically reduce file sizes but it will make it impossible to recover the texture at full quality if it is lost. HAR-9602

Import / Export

There are now unique extensions for tool, brush and texture preset files.

- .tbr: Toon Boom brush presets

- .tpr: Toon Boom tool presets

- .tbx: Toon Boom tips and texture presets HAR-10598
The option to use DWAA compression when exporting EXR files has been added. HAR-9771

WebCC

sendToBatchRender parameter has been added to the WebCC api. HAR-10846

Scripting

Timeline::layerEnabled adds the ability to query the current enabled status of layers in the Timeline view. HAR-10665
A parameter has been added to removeSoundColumn to control the removal of the sound file from the project folder.

column::removeSoundColumn(QString columnName, bool removeSoundFile = false); HAR-10667

Linux

To maximize compatibility 7zip is no longer packaged with Harmony and will need to be installed separately. System::find7Zip() has been added to the scripting API which returns the system or packaged path of 7zip that will be used by Harmony if it exists. HAR-10551

OpenGL

The caching of multiple Colour Overrides nodes with the same or similar content, is now more efficient. HAR-10741
The caching of multiple Art-Selector nodes of the same type and connected to the same source, is now more efficient. HAR-10657

Fixes

General

There is a significant delay when switching back to Harmony from another application on Windows. HAR-10904
Tool Preset import function does not work. HAR-10597
The License Wizard links to documentation in the wrong language when using a language other than English. SB-3911
Editing a texture from the Colour view loads a non native file dialog. HAR-9806
Enabling Show Strokes in some scenes can cause the application to freeze for several minutes. HAR-9943
Onion Skin Coloured Outline display mode always shows all the drawings between the first and the last enabled visible switch. HAR-10594
Coloured Outlines in Advanced Onion Skinning do not display the correct opacity levels. HAR-10428
Onion skin does not work correctly when there is a composite node above the cutter's matte port. HAR-10890
Onion Skin by drawing does not work properly for drawings before the current frame in the Camera View HAR-10592
Colour recovery does not correctly load the palettes that already exist in the file system but are not in the palette list. HAR-9596
The Set Thickness option of the Edit Pencil Line Properties dialog does not scale the pencil texture. HAR-10484
Closing the Edit Pencil Lines properties displays "No such file or directory" in scenes where it has been previously used and has been reopened without closing. HAR-10483
Some colour space dropdown boxes do not contain the colour space family name when using a custom ocio file. HAR-10411
While the Layer Properties view is docked to the main Harmony window, non-docked views will lose focus when the node selection is changed. HAR-10383
Deleting an audio track always deletes the audio file from the scene. HAR-10667

Drawing

Applying an "Additional Tip Multiplier" with the "Edit Pencil Line Properties" tool will cause lines to become longer. HAR-6444

Nodes

A drawing's deformation wireframe is sometimes visible in onion skinning when it is attached to a Colour Override node. HAR-9756
Toon Boom Bitmap drawings connected to a Colour Override node are not selectable in the Camera View. HAR-10488

Import / Export

PNG and PSD exports read ICC file for every file written instead of caching it. HAR-10670
PSD files with a single top level group fail to import. HAR-9789
The alpha mode of PSD files exported by Harmony is not compatible with Photoshop. HAR-5558

Library

It is not possible to unlock (release rights) on a library folder that is mounted from a network drive. HAR-10476
Dragging and dropping some templates can cause Harmony to crash on M4 Mac Computers. HAR-10691
When a Template is edited, its thumbnail does not update. HAR-10425
The Library View's rename shortcut key doesn't work. HAR-10293

Xsheet

In WIndows, Harmony crashes when typing diacritical marks on their own in an Xsheet cell and then hitting enter. HAR-10535

Rendering

The internal software rendering cache of a previously rendered frame is sometimes incorrectly cleared which causes Harmony to render the frame again when displayed even if there were no changes in the scene. HAR-10006
Render threads can sometimes become deadlocked on M4 Mac Computers. HAR-10689

Scripting

QUdpSocket::bind() is missing from the scripting api. HAR-10627

Python

OMC::DrawingVectorLineStyle always returns the y value to be the same as the x value for Vector2d attributes. HAR-10706
Loading a Harmony project in an External Python Interpreter causes it to crash on exit. HAR-9891
Saving a Harmony project from an External Python Interpreter strips out OpenFX nodes from the scene file. HAR-10951

Timeline

Dragging and dropping drawings in the Timeline view will create clones of external palettes. HAR-5430
Increase and Decrease Exposure commands don't work on empty frames when "Animate using Animation Tools" is disabled HAR-8855
"Paste Mode: Exposure Only" does not work in non-English languages. HAR-11005
The "Set Ease Type" drop down list in the Timeline view closes immediately and prevents the selection of presets in macOS. HAR-11087

OpenGL

Modifying a drawing that is part of a morphing sequence does not update immediately in the Camera view. HAR-10429

Linux

The dropper tool in the colour picker always picks pure black on some systems. HAR-9978
The Help > About menu option in the Service Launcher causes it to crash. HAR-10536
Rocky 9 fails to load default Python Libraries. HAR-10521
Service Launcher button becomes grayed out after choosing not to run WebCC without rabbitMQ. HAR-10977
License Wizard unable to activate local license because Client Activation crashes. HAR-10520

Known Issues

Linux

Translations do not work in Rocky Linux. HAR-11115