Understanding the Library Concept

The Library view is where you can store and reuse your artwork and animation in other scenes or build props and puppets.

What is a Library?
Understanding the Library Concept
What is a Symbol?
Understanding the Library Concept

The library is a storage centre for all production assets; the elements stored in the library are called templates. Although it is mainly used for cut-out animation, the library is also useful for paperless and traditional animation processes. The library can contain any asset used in a Toon Boom Harmony production.

Using the library is as simple as dragging the content into the library to store your artwork and then dragging it to the Timeline or Camera view when you want to reuse it.

You can organize your library using several different subfolders and store them on your hard drive or network.

A template is an individual copy of the artwork stored in the library which you can reuse in different scenes. Once a template is stored in the library, you can access it from any project.

Dragging a template into your scene copies the content in your Timeline and does not link it to the original. You can modify this individual copy at any time.

A symbol is a container used to build your props, puppets and looping clips. You can use symbols to contain artwork and animation and manipulate them as a single object. You can also use symbols as a placeholder in which you place a series of different drawings for each body part of your puppets or when you have a repeating cycle. However, symbols are not necessary for creating characters.

To create a symbol, drag your artwork to the Symbol library. When you drag a symbol from the Symbol library into your scene, it will be linked to the original symbol. If you drag a symbol into your scene several times in the Timeline view, they will all be linked to the original symbol. If you modify one, they will all be modified.

A symbol is local to the project and cannot be accessed directly from other scenes. To reuse a symbol's content in another scene, you must create a template out of it.

When a symbol is exposed in the Timeline view, the symbol's cells are represented as a movie strip.