Chapter 6: Interface

It’s important that you become familiar with the following elements of the user interface as this will help you to start using Toon Boom Harmony. You can learn more about the highlights described here, and how to use them in a production context, throughout this guide.

When you start Toon Boom Harmony for the first time, the default workspace is displayed. It contains all of the main elements you need to use.

1. Menus
2. Tools toolbar
3. Camera view
4. Timeline view
5. Tool Properties view
6. Network view
7. Colour view

Adding a View

Tool Properties View

The contextual Tool Properties view contains the most common options and operations related to the currently selected tool. As soon as you select a tool from the Tools toolbar, the Tool Properties view is updated.

For example, if you choose the Select tool in the Tools toolbar, the Tool Properties view displays the optisons and operations related to the Select tool, such as Snap to Contour, Snap and Align, Flip Horizontal and Flatten.

Interface Navigation

Toon Boom Harmony supports zoom in, zoom out, rotate, pan and reset view for easy interface navigation for the views.

Command Action Access Methods

Zoom In

Zooms into the view.

View > Zoom In

Press 2 or roll the mouse wheel up.

In the Timeline view, press Ctrl (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ (Mac OS X) and roll the mouse wheel up.

Zoom Out

Zooms out of the view.

View > Zoom Out

Press 1 or roll the mouse wheel down.

In the Timeline view, press Ctrl (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ (Mac OS X) and roll the mouse wheel down

Zoom In or Out

Zooms in or out of the view.

Roll the middle mouse button up or down.

Pan

Moving parallel to the view.

Hold down the Spacebar and drag the mouse in the direction in which you want to pan the view.

Recenter view

Recenters the view on your mouse cursor.

Press N

Reset Pan

Resets the view’s pan to its default position.

View > Reset Pan

Press Shift + N

Reset View

Resets the view to its default position.

View > Reset View

Press Shift + M

 

Reset Rotation

Resets the view’s rotation to its default position.

View > Reset Rotation

Press Shift + X

Reset Zoom

Resets the view’s zoom to its default position.

View > Reset Zoom

Toggle Full Screen

Enlarges the selected view to full screen. The full screen process is done in three stages.

First, the selected view enlarges to the maximum width or height, but keeps the tool views such as Colour or Tool Properties view.

Second, the view enlarges to full screen.

Third, the view returns to its original size.

View > Toggle Full Screen

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

Rotate 90 CW

Rotates the Camera view 90 degrees clockwise, like an animation table.

View > Rotate View CW

Rotate 90 CCW

Rotates the Camera view 90 degrees counter-clockwise, like an animation table.

View > Rotate View CCW

Toggle Quick Close-up

Use the Magnifier tool to quickly center on the mouse position and zoom in to a pre-defined value such as 4X. Then you can zoom out again. Hold the shift key and press Z to zoom in and back out again. Replacing the Reset Zoom by pressing Shift +.

The area where you zoom in or out is dependent on the cursor location in the Camera view. If you zoom in and them move the cursor to a different location when you zoom out the mouse will be centered on that location.

 
If you are using a tablet or track pad that supports touch, then you can also use the standard two-finger gestures for zoom, rotate, and pan of the canvas in the Camera and Drawing views.