Positioning an Element Using the Layer Properties
Each layer has a series of parameters that can be modified to adjust the object's position. These parameters can be access in the Layer Properties view. In the Layer Properties view, you can type in a value rather than moving the object in the Camera view. These values can also be animated over time.
You can also access a layer's parameters in the Timeline view. Click on the Expand Parameters arrow and the Show Data View button.
It is important to understand the coordinate values in Harmony. Harmony's core is based on the origins of animation. In traditional animation, a scene's size and camera motion are calculated in fields. A field has a 4:3 ratio and measures 0.5 inch in width. A specific grid has been created for this purpose. It is known as a field chart. Harmony uses this unit of measurement as its coordinate system.
A field chart uses cardinal directions. The X axis is the east-west direction, the Y axis is the north-south direction and the Z axis is the forward-backward direction.
In Harmony, a drawing's pivot is located at the centre of the field chart, regardless where your drawing has been drawn on the page. Your drawing is the entire sheet of paper, not only the drawing strokes you have drawn on the page. This allows scanned drawings, imported images and paperless drawings to be properly registered together.
If you want to move your drawing in the upper left region of the camera frame, you would type in something like the following:
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X Axis: -4 or 4W (4 West) |
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Y Axis: 5 or 5N (5 North) |
If you want to move your drawing in the lower right region of the camera frame, you would type in something like the following:
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X Axis: 3 or 3E (3 East) |
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Y Axis: -2 or 2S (2 South) |
How to position an element using its Layer Properties dialog box
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Do one of the following: |
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In the Timeline view, right-click on the drawing layer and select Layer Properties |
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Single-click or double-click on the layer. |
The Layer Properties dialog box opens.
The Enable 3D check box displays the 3D parameters in the Layer Properties—see Enabling the 3D Option.
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In the Position section, type in the desired values: |
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X - Left/right or east/west |
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Y - Up/down or north/south |
As you type in the new values, the element’s position is updated in the Camera view.
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In the (x) Axis field, type in a new East/West coordinate corresponding to the desired position. |
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In the (y) Axis field, type in a new North/South coordinate corresponding to the desired position. |
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In the (z) Axis field, type in a new Forward/Backward coordinate corresponding to the desired position—see Creating a Multiplane. |
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The Function  buttons are used to create function curves to add keyframes when animating. |
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In the Scale section, select one of the following: |
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Locked: Resizes the element while keeping its ratio. |
(xy) Axis: Type in the horizontal and vertical scales value.
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Separate: Resizes the element with independent X and Y scales. This allows you to squash and stretch. |
(x) Axis: Type in the horizontal scale value.
(y) Axis: Type in the vertical scale value.
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The Function buttons are used to create function curves to add keyframes when animating. |
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In the Angle Z field, type in a degree value for the rotation angle. Note that you can enter values greater than 360 and -360 degrees. If you enter 720, the object will rotate twice. |
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In the Skew field, type in a degree value between -90 to 90 for the skew angle. |
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In the Pivot section, type in the desired coordinate value to reposition the transformation pivot. This will change the permanent position of the pivot. |
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In the (x) Axis field, type in a new East/West coordinate corresponding to the desired position. |
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In the (y) Axis field, type in a new North/South coordinate corresponding to the desired position. |
Layer Properties Options
A drawing layer properties dialog box is composed of four tabs.
Drawing Tab Image Tab
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Description
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| Element Columns |
Full Name: Select which element to connect to the module from the drop-down list of elements that already exist in your scene.
Drawing Path: Displays the full path to the current drawing.
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| Timing Columns |
Name: Path to the file that you want to link to.
Timing Column: Link to the column that contains the desired timing.
Extension: When linking to a background file, enter its filename extension.
Field Chart: If you are importing traditional animation, select the size of the paper on which the animation was drawn.
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| Art Layers |
Line Art/Colour Art Enabled: Lets you set layers as line art, colour art, or both.
Line Art Type: Designates the layer as a Line Art layer.
Colour Art Type: Designates the layer as a Colour Art layer.
Antialiasing Quality: Smoothness setting applied to an art layer. Choose from Low (no antialiasing), Medium Low, Medium and High (extensive antialiasing). The higher the quality of the chosen setting, the greater the amount of antialiasing that is applied. Higher quality images require more time to render and more memory from your system.
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| Bitmap File Options |
When an image is created with an external software and that image has some transparency, there are several formats the software can use when writing the RBG channels. The purpose of the four import options for the transparency is for the user to tell Harmony how to interpret the RGB channels of the imported image. The correct option has to match the ouput format of the software that was used to create the image in the first place. For instance, if the you used Adobe Photoshop and exported an image as Straight, then it should be imported in Harmony as Straight in order to get the correct result.
Note that if the image has no alpha channel, or if it does have an alpha channel and all the pixels are 100% opaque, itdoes not make any difference which option is selected.
Colour: Controls the production of colour information from bitmap images. If this module reads 3 or 4-channel bitmaps, this selection determines whether the colour should be read or ignored. If this module reads 1-channel bitmaps, this selection determines whether the channel should be read as colour. When this option is selected with 1-channel images, the resulting image will be a greyscale image.
Transparency: Controls the production of alpha information from bitmap images. If this module reads a 1 or 3-channel image, this option will create a matte from the colour values in the image. If the module reads a 4-channel image and this option is not selected, the alpha information in the image will be ignored.
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Transparency Type
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Premultiplied with Black: Semi-transparent pixels in the original image are blended with black. |
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Premultiplied with White: Semi-transparent pixels in the original image are blended with white. |
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Straight: Semi-transparent pixels in the original image are left as is (unmatted). |
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Clamp Colour to Alpha: Semi-transparent pixels in the original image are blended with black. On import, each of the RGB channels is clamped so that a color value never exceed the alpha value for a given pixel. When the RGB values are multiplied with the alpha value, that is to say, if you have a pixel of value R=247, G=188, B=29 and the alpha is 50% or the image has a 50% transparency, then the actual RGB values output would be half of the amounts listed above.
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Alignment Rule: The alignment rule selections are intended to deal with drawings that were created on paper of a different size or orientation from the default alignment rule (set up in the Scene Setting dialog box) or imported bitmap images. The drawings are then scaled to match Toon Boom Harmony alignment rectangle. Note that alignment rules are not based on the camera frame, but on the scene frame. Refer to the Fundamentals Guide to learn more about scene alignment and scene settings.
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Left: The default alignment for drawings; aligns the drawings on the left side of the scene’s alignment rectangle. Toon Boom Harmony scales the drawings to match their height to the alignment rectangle of the scene. |
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Right: Aligns the drawings on the right side of the alignment rectangle. Toon Boom Harmony scales the drawings to match their height to the height of the alignment rectangle of the scene. |
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Top: Aligns the drawings on the top of the alignment rectangle. Toon Boom Harmony scales the drawings to match their widths to the width of the alignment rectangle of the scene. |
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Bottom: Aligns the drawings on the bottom of the alignment rectangle. Toon Boom Harmony scales the drawings to match their widths to the width of the alignment rectangle of the scene. |
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Centre Fit: Centres the drawings. |
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Centre Fill: Centres the drawings and then scales them so that the width or height fills the available space. |
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Centre LR: Aligns the drawings in the left-right centre of the alignment rectangle. Toon Boom Harmony scales the drawings to match their height to the height of the alignment rectangle of the scene. |
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Centre TB: Aligns the drawings in the top-bottom centre of the alignment rectangle. Toon Boom Harmony scales the drawings to match their widths to the width of the alignment rectangle of the scene. |
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Stretch: Scales the drawings so that they fit within the alignment rectangle of the scene. This is particularly useful for images that you will manipulate with a Quadmap module. If the drawings in the Quadmap module do not have the same aspect ratio as the alignment rectangle of the scene (from the Scene Settings dialog box), the handles on the quadmap will not appear on the corners of the image, making it difficult to manipulate the quadmap. In this case, you would set the drawing layer of the quadmap images to Stretch so that the handles appear on the corner of the image. This can have the effect of distorting the images, but this is not an issue with images that will be distorted through the Quadmap module anyway. |
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As Is: Leaves the drawings aligned as they are. |
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Centre First Page: Aligns the centre of the first part of a standard pan cel with the centre of the field chart. |
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| Opacity |
Lets you quickly change the transparency of the selected element. Opacity settings here will be reflected in both OpenGL preview, and full render.
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