More Drawing Tools
Harmony offers a wide variety of useful tools to optimize your drawings and work more efficiently; tools such as Group, Arrange, and the animation disk to rotate your workspace.
Arrange
The different Arrange options let you reorder drawing objects inside a single layer in the Drawing or Camera view.
Name
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Button
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Description
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Access Method
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Bring to Front |
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Moves the selected art to the front (on top) |
From the top menu, select Selected > Arrange > Bring to Front.
Press Ctrl + Shift + PgUp (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + Shift + PgUp (Mac OS X).
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Bring Forward |
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Moves the selected art one level forward (closer to the front) |
From the top menu, select Selected > Arrange > Bring Forward.
Press Ctrl + PgUp (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + PgUp (Mac OS X).
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Send Backward |
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Moves the selected art one level lower (behind) |
From the top menu, select Selected > Arrange > Send Backward.
Press Ctrl + PgDown (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + PgDown (Mac OS X).
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Send to Back |
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Moves the selected art behind everything (bottom / back)
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From the top menu, select Selected > Arrange > Send to Back.
Press Ctrl + Shift + PgDown (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + Shift + PgDown (Mac OS X).
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Convert Brush Strokes to Pencil Lines
The Brushes Strokes to Pencil Lines operation converts selected contour strokes into centreline pencil strokes. This command is only available from the top menu.
How to convert brush strokes to pencil lines
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From the top menu, select Selected > Convert > Brush Strokes to Pencil Lines or press ^. |
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Right-click on the selection, select Convert > Brush Strokes to Pencil Lines or press ^
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Pencil Lines to Brush Strokes
The Pencil Lines to Brush Strokes operation converts the selected centreline pencil strokes into contour strokes brush lines.
How to convert pencil lines to brush strokes
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From the top menu, select Selected > Convert > Pencil Lines to Brush Strokes or press &. |
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Right-click on the selection, select Convert > Pencil Lines to Brush Strokes or press & |
Strokes to Pencil Lines
The Strokes to Pencil Lines operation converts the selected invisible line to a pencil line.
How to convert strokes to pencil lines
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From the top menu, select Selected > Convert > Strokes to Pencil Lines or press Shift + F12 (Windows/Linux only). |
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Right-click on the selection, select Convert > Strokes to Pencil Lines or press Shift + F12 (Windows/Linux only) |
Optimize
The Optimize command reduces the number of layers, such as overlapping brush strokes, in the selected drawing objects. Drawing objects will only be flattened and optimized if the selected objects do not change the appearance of the final image when they are merged.
For example, if you have selected a number of partially transparent objects, which you layered to create an additive colour effect, the selected transparent drawing objects will not be merged. This is because merging the transparent drawing objects will cause them to lose the effect of the layered transparent colours.
How to optimize
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Use the Select tool to select the drawing objects you want to optimize. |
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From the top menu, select Selected > Optimize. |
Remove Extra Strokes
The Remove Extra Strokes option let you remove the invisible lines in your selection.
How to remove extra strokes
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1.
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In the Tools toolbar, select the Select tool. |
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2.
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In the Drawing view, use the Select tool to select the drawing objects you want to remove invisible lines from. |
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3.
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From the top menu, select Selected > Flatten and Remove Extra Strokes. |
Create Contour Stroke
The Create Contour Stroke option is used to add a permanent invisible line around a shape that was drawn directly in Harmony. This allows you to unpaint your lines with the Paint tool but maintain the shape of the lines, should you need to repaint later.
This command is useful when inking and painting and using the Apply to All Drawings in Layer option.
How to create contour strokes
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1.
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In the Tools toolbar, select the Select tool. |
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2.
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In the Drawing view, use the Select tool to select the drawing objects you want to create contour strokes for. |
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3.
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From the top menu, select Selected > Create Contour Strokes. |
Remove Contour Stroke
The Remove Contour Stroke option is used to remove any permanently invisible lines that were created while scanning and vectorizing drawings or manually adding contour strokes. This is useful if you want to remove the intersection triangles created during vectorization.
How to remove contour strokes
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1.
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In the Tools toolbar, select the Select tool. |
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2.
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In the Drawing view, use the Select tool to select the drawing objects you want to remove contour strokes for. |
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3.
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From the top menu, select Selected > Remove Contour Strokes. |
Grid
Use the Show Grid option to display a grid in the Drawing view.
Name
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Button
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Description
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Keyboard Shortcut
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Show Grid
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Displays the grid |
From the top menu, select View > Grid > Show Grid
Press Ctrl + ' (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + ' (Mac OS X).
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Square |
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Displays a standard square grid |
From the top menu, select View > Grid > Square.
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12 Field Grid |
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Displays a 12-field size grid |
From the top menu, select View > Grid > 12 Field Grid.
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16 Field Grid |
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Displays a 16-field size grid |
From the top menu, select View > Grid > 16 Field Grid.
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Underlay |
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Displays the grid under the drawing elements |
From the top menu, select View > Grid > Underlay |
Overlay |
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Displays the grid over the drawing elements |
From the top menu, select View > Grid > Overlay |
Group/Ungroup
Use the Group option to group selected drawing objects. This can help in the selection, repositioning, re-scaling and other transformations to be applied to multiple objects of a drawing.
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From the top menu, select Selected> Group > Group or Selected > Group > Ungroup. |
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Press Ctrl + G and Ctrl + Shift + G (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + G and ⌘ + Shift + G (Mac OS X). |
Hand
Use the Hand tool to pan through the Drawing view.
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In the Tools toolbar, select the Hand tool, click in the Drawing view and drag. |
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You can also Hold down the Spacebar, click in the Drawing view and move your mouse in the direction you want to pan the view. |
Rotate View
The Rotate View tool lets you rotate the Drawing view, the same way as you would do with a real animation disc. This tool can also be used in the Perspective view.
How to use the Rotate View tool
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1.
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Do one of the following: |
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From the top menu, select Tools > Rotate View. |
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Press Ctrl + Alt (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + Alt (Mac OS X). |
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In the Tools toolbar, select the Rotate View tool. |
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In the Drawing view, right-click and select Drawing Tools > Rotate View. |
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2.
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In the Drawing view, click and drag to rotate the space. |