User Guide > Colour > Line Art and Colour Art Layers

Line Art and Colour Art Layers

Toon Boom Animate Pro has an option allowing you to paint the lines and the colour fills separately.

In Toon Boom Animate Pro, a drawing is composed of four embedded layers:

Overlay Layer
Line Art Layer
Colour Art Layer
Underlay Layer

In general, use the Line Art and Colour Art layers. The Underlay and Overlay layers are used for advanced purposes.

Refer to the topic to learn more about these layers.

By default, you draw on the Line Art layer. The colour layer is always placed under the Line Art layer. These layers are accessible in the Drawing or Camera view (using drawing tools). When you look at your final drawing in the Timeline, Xsheet or Network view, you will not see four layers; instead you will see the final composition of the lines and colours.

You can draw and paint in all layers, but if you prefer working in a single layer, you can do everything in Line Art.

The main advantage of using the Line Art and Colour Art option is so you can repaint the lines easily. If your colour fills are separated from the lines, it allows you to use the repaint tool and paint the lines without affecting the colour zones. Also, it allows you to paint tones and highlights in line art and then add some transparency to see the Colour Art through it.

In order to paint in the Colour Art, you must first use the Create Colour Art from Line Art option to create colour zones in the Colour Art. You need to use this option to paint drawings vectorized as greyscale texture style.

To toggle between Line Art and Colour Art and enable the Preview mode:

1. In the Tools toolbar, select any drawing tool.
2. To toggle between Line Art and Colour Art:
In the Drawing view,right-click and select Switch to Colour Art/Switch to Line Art or s[L].
In the Drawing or Camera bottom toolbar, click on the Colour Art button.
In the Drawing or Camera bottom toolbar, click on the Line Art button.
3. To preview the Line Art and Colour Art at the same time:
In the Drawing view,right-click and select Preview Line Art and Colour Art. While using the Preview mode, you still edit one mode at a time or press [Shift] + [P].
In the Drawing or Camera bottom toolbar, click on the Preview button. To be able to see only one of the layers at a time in the Camera view, you must enable the Current Drawing on Top option, available from the Camera bottom toolbar drop-down menu. If this option is not enabled, you will see the final composition of all four layers.
In order to edit both Line Art and Colour Art at the same time, you must enable the Apply to Line Art and Colour Art button in the Tool Properties of the tools supporting the operation.

In Toon Boom Animate Pro, you have two extra art layers available beside the Line Art and the Colour Art, the Underlay and the Overlay layers. The Underlay is situated at the very bottom and the Overlay at the very top.

Underlay

The Underlay layer can be used like any other of the art layers available in the drawing, but since it is situated behind everything else, you can use it to create a matte for a quick line-test, write notes or store your rough animation.

Overlay

The Overlay layer can be used as any other of the art layers available in the drawing, but since it is situated on top of every other, it can be useful for writing notes about the colour model or animation or to draw the highlight and tone shapes.

Related Topics 

Generating a Matte for Your Animation
Creating Strokes to Paint Your Drawings on a Separated Layer
More Drawing Layers