Display Concepts

The Display module is an important module.This is the module used by the export and views to display your scene, primarily the Camera and Timeline views. By default, a scene's network always has a display module. It is also available in the Module Library and can be imported in the Network view to be connected to any module that outputs drawing images, such as drawing elements, effects or composite modules.

The Display module can be used to either show your entire scene, a single module or a group of module through a composite or group module. You might use it to see one single character as you animate it, debug your network as you create complex effects or export your complete scene or a portion of it.

This topic is divided as follows:

Display Modules
Global Display
Display All
Display Modes

Display Modules

You can have more than one display module in the Network view, allowing you to visualize different sections of the scene without disabling or disconnecting elements that could be in the way. This technique is useful in cut-out animation as it allows you to see one puppet without viewing all of the other characters. It is also useful during compositing and helps you visualize and debug effects.

You can add a display module to the Network view by dragging one from the Module Library view.

To use this display concept, you must first show the Display toolbar. The Display toolbar will show you a drop-down list of all display modules available in your Network view. Simply select the desired display to update the Camera and Timeline views content.

Global Display

The Display toolbar let you select the different display modules available in the network.

When selecting a new display, all the views update to show the content of the new display module. The concept of all views following the display selected in the Display toolbar is called Global Display.

Display Toolbar

Display All

When your scene does not have a Display module, it is automatically set to Display All which uses the Timeline view ordering and shows floating modules from the Network view.

You can also set your display to Display All using the Display toolbar.

If you try to add a peg layer in the Timeline view without having a layer selected, the peg layer will be floating in the Network view and will not be visible in the Timeline view. The Timeline view shows only layers that are connected to the Composite module.

If you switch to Display All, you run the risk of not realizing when you have floating modules that are not connected to your composite. For this reason, it is not recommended to work in Display All mode.

Show All Modules

When your scene contains many modules and you cannot see them all, you can display all modules at that level.

Display Modes

Toon Boom Harmony has two display modes. By default, it is set to the Basic Display mode.

When creating a scene in Basic Display mode, a display module is automatically added to the network and connected to the final composite module. All of the views are set to used this display module. This means that only the elements connected in that composite module will show in the Camera view.

You can add and connect more display modules to your network and select the one you want using the Display menu. In Basic mode, every view is set to the same Display module.

In Advanced Display mode, every view has its own Display menu and each one can be set to a different display module. To switch from Basic to Advanced Display mode, you must enable the Advanced Display preference. These menus allow you to set the views for different displays. By default, all views are set to Default to follow the main Display toolbar selection. However, you may want different views set on different displays. For example, you can have one Camera view to display the full scene and another Camera view to only display the character being animated. In this case, you can set the first Camera view on the final display and the second on the character’s display module.

If you want the views to follow the main Display toolbar selection, set the view display menu to Default display.