Interface Highlights

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

This is Harmony Paint’s default workspace, it is restored every time you launch a session.

1. Menus
2. Toolbars
3. Drawing and Drawing Thumbnails Views
4. Controls
5. Colour View
Extra Views

Menus

You can access the commands from the following menus:

Top Menu
Quick Access Menu

Top Menu

The top menu contains most of the commands. This menu is always located at the very top of the user interface.

The top menu contains the following categories:

File
Edit
Drawing
Selected
View
Tools
Options
Colours
Palettes
Windows
Help

In the Mac OS X version, there is a Stage category containing the following commands:

Preferences
About
Quit

Quick Access Menu

Each view has a Quick Access Menu containing recurring actions. This menu is accessed by right-clicking anywhere in the view.

Toolbars

Here are the main toolbars in Harmony Paint:

Drawing View Toolbar
Tools Toolbar

Drawing View Toolbar

The Drawing View toolbar contains the main options and features you will use while working in Harmony Paint. You can customize this toolbar to display the features you use the most. Refer to the Managing the Toolbars to learn how.

Tools Toolbar

The Tools toolbar contains all of the main tools you will use while working in Harmony Paint.

Drawing and Drawing Thumbnails Views

1. Drawing Area
2. Drawing Thumbnails View
3. Overlay, Line Art, Colour Art, Underlay and Preview Modes
4. Drawing Name
5. Tool Name
6. Frame Number

Drawing Area

This is the Drawing view’s main space, it is where you draw, and where the drawings are displayed.

Drawing Thumbnails View

The Drawing Thumbnails view display a list with thumbnails of the loaded drawings. The highlighted drawing is the one displayed in the drawing area. You can select the drawing you want to paint directly from this list.

Overlay, Line Art, Colour Art, Underlay and Preview Modes

Overlay

Click on this button to switch to the drawing’s Overlay layer. This layer is located above the Line Art layer. The shortcut is [:].

Line Art

Click on this button to switch to the Line Art layer of the drawing. The shortcut is [L].

Colour Art

Click on this button to switch to the Colour Art layer of the drawing. The shortcut is [L].

Underlay

Click on this button to switch to the drawing’s Underlay layer. This layer is located under the Colour Art layer. The shorcut is [:].

Preview mode

Click on this button to switch to Preview mode. This lets you see both Line Art and Colour Art layers simultaneously. The shortcut is [Shift] + [P]. Hold the Preview mode button to display a drop-down list in which you can enable the Underlay or Overlay layers to include them in the preview.

Drawing Name

The Drawing Name field displays the name of the selected drawing as well as the layer containing it. If the cell does not contain any drawings, an Empty Cell text is shown in the field.

Tool Name

The Tool Name field displays the name of the selected tool. If you override a tool using an overriding keyboard shortcut, the tool’s name will be highlighted in red letters.

Refer to the Override Tool to learn how to temporarily override a tool.

Frame Number

The Frame Number field displays the number of the current frame.

Controls

The controls are used to quickly have access to common commands:

Previous and Next Drawing

These buttons let you switch to the previous or next drawings. The shortcuts are [F] and [G].

Previous and Next Layer

These buttons are used to switch to the previous or next layer when you have different layers loaded. The shortcuts are [H] and [J].

Line Art, Colour Art, Preview Mode

Use these buttons to switch from Line Art to Colour Art. The shortcut is [L]. You can also enable or disable the Preview mode. The shortcuts are [Shift] + [P].

There are three extra views, that are not part of the workspace when the Harmony Paint module is launched:

Tool Properties View
Model View
Colour Editor View

Related Topics 

Open Elements
Drawing and Drawing Thumbnails Views
Interface Navigation
Managing the Views