Toon Boom Harmony 17.0.1 Release Notes
Here is the list of changes in Harmony 17.0.1, build 15085 (2019-09-05):
Drawing
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Better control when drawing a straight line with a freehand tool |
In Harmony 17.0.0, the key combination for drawing straight lines with a freehand drawing tool changed to Alt + Shift. The behaviour was also changed: When moving your tablet pen or mouse in the opposite direction as the line, the angle of the line locked, allowing you to draw over it to adjust its thickness. As of Harmony 17.0.1, you can keep adjust the angle and length of your line as long as you're holding both the Alt and Shift keys, regardless of the direction you pull your pen or mouse. You can lock the angle of your line by releasing one of either the Shift or Alt keys, after which you can redraw over your line. If you release both keys, you will resume drawing freehand. |
| Locking a drawing guide's angle |
If you press and hold the Alt key while using drawing guides, the angle of the guide lines will stop following your mouse cursor and lock in position until you release the Alt key, allowing you to keep the guide lines at the right angle. By using this feature, you can rework the thickness or length of lines that you are drawing with a guide. It's also useful if you want to draw a dotted line along an axis. |
| Hidden preference to enable legacy drawing keyboard modifiers |
A hidden preference was added to allow users who preferred the drawing key modifiers for Harmony 16 and earlier to restore those modifiers. Enabling this preference does the following:
You can toggle this preference by downloading, importing and running the script at the URL below: |
Export
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Export in H.264/MPEG-4 with audio |
It is now possible to export movies in H.264/MPEG-4 format with audio. In order to support this, exports made with the H.264/MPEG-4 codec will now use the QuickTime Movie (.mov) extension instead of the MPEG-4 (.mp4) extension. This is because, when using this codec, Harmony can only export sound in uncompressed audio (PCM) , which is not supported by the MPEG-4 container. Hence, the option in the Export Movie dialog and the Write Node layer properties has been renamed H.264/MPEG-4 (*.mov). It is still different from QuickTime Movie (*.mov) in that it is created by Harmony and does not depend on Apple QuickTime. |
Preferences
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| User interface language |
It is now possible to select your preferred user interface language in the Preferences dialog. Harmony currently supports English, Chinese (Simplified), Japanese and Spanish. In previous versions, Harmony would always launch in the language of your operating system if supported, or in English otherwise. By setting this preference, you can make Harmony launch in a specific supported language regardless of the language of your operating system. You can change this preference in the General tab of the Preferences dialog. |
Utilities
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Import image to line art or color art with utransform |
utransform has the following new parameters:
These new parameters work exactly like the already existing -addoverlay, -useoverlaylayer, -addunderlay and -useunderlaylayer, except you can now perform the same tasks on the target drawing's line art and color art layers. |
Scripting
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Convert 3D Path functions to Separate functions |
The new convertToSeparate() method of the func class allows you to convert a 3D path function into an array of three Bezier functions representing its x, y and z axes. The conversion must be approximate. Hence, it allows you to use one of two approximation algorithms: one that prioritizes the accuracy of the spline's shape, which may cause some keyframes to be offset in time, and one that prioritizes the position of its keyframes in time, which may affect the shape of the spline a bit. For more information, see Harmony Scripting Interface Reference |
| Get tension of an ease function | The tensionEase() method was added to the func class. It will return the tension of the ease function that is passed as its parameter |
| Specify colour IDs when checking for used colours | The containsUsedColors() method of the Palette class now requires a list of colour IDs as a parameter, to check whether specific colours in the palette are used |
| Export to SVG | The TB_ExportSVG.js script has been enhanced to be easy to use. Comments have been added at the beginning of the script to explain how to use it. |
Fixed Issues
- When opening a scene on Windows, Harmony sometimes fails to initialize the audio device, preventing audio playback.
- Harmony crashes when attempting to delete a control point when using the
Centerline Editor. - Harmony may crash when pressing a keyboard shortcut to temporarily use the Centerline Editor tool and a keyboard shortcut to temporarily use another tool simultaneously.
- Harmony occasionally crashes when working in the Camera or Drawing view with multiple OpenGL views opened on macOS.
- Harmony crashes when attempting to undo after copying and pasting animation keyframes on a layer's parameters in the Timeline view.
- When a scene created in Harmony Premium and which contains cached rigs is opened in Harmony Advanced or Harmony Essentials, then saved, caching gets disabled for all rigs in the scene.
- Cached elements may appear cropped when moving them in the Top or Side views. HAR-5358
- The left column of the Timeline view does not scroll along when holding Spacebar and clicking and dragging on it.
- View specific toolbars may disappear after restarting Harmony.
- Timeline view does not remain centred on mouse cursor when using the keyboard shortcuts to zoom in or out.
- Library view toolbar is not present in the default workspace.
- Preview of drawing stroke does not appear when drawing with the
Pencil tool while holding a modifier key if the 
Draw Behind option is enabled - When starting a drawing stroke with a drawing guide, the start of the stroke may shift a bit as Harmony determines which one of the guide's axes to lock onto.
- The
Stamp tool draws an extra line when drawing a stroke with the Draw Behind tool mode and the 
Current Drawing On Top switch enabled. - Preview of drawing stroke does not appear when drawing with the
Brush or Pencil tools and a drawing guide if the Draw Behind tool mode is enabled. - When the
Apply to Visible Drawing Layers tool mode is enabled, it is not possible to select several strokes with the 
Select tool by holding Shift and clicking on each of them. - The Alt modifier key has no effect when using a keyboard shortcut to temporarily override the current tool.
- When drawing with the Pencil tool using a fixed thickness preset, if there is a minimum amount of pressure set in the Pen Pressure Feel dialog, pencil lines are drawn even when not putting the minimum amount of pressure to draw a stroke.
- If the user presses and releases Shift while drawing with a guide, the drawing stroke may end up different from what was drawn.
- Visual artifacts appear when drawing a straight line with the Stroke tool by holding the Shift and Alt keys on macOS.
- Control box of the
Transform tool's is extremely small when selecting an element that contains an empty drawing - Control box of the Transform tool is wrong when selecting a peg containing several elements and one of them contains an empty drawing.
- The bounding box of the Transform tool does not adjust to new position of peg when pasting a keyframe on the selected peg layer.
- Bounding box of selected drawing does not update when undoing a transformation with the
Transform tool in 
Animate Off mode, if the selected drawing is animated with a 3D path function. - Bounding box of selected drawing does not update when undoing a transformation with the Transform tool in Animate Off mode, if the selected drawing is animated with a 3D path function.
- Attempting to select an element in the Camera view sometimes fails after zooming in or out when in
Render View mode.
- Copying and pasting a keyframe on a parameter in the Timeline view does not update the value displayed for the current frame.
- If the user sets a custom keyboard shortcut, switches to a different shortcut set, then clicks Cancel, the new custom keyboard shortcut is saved.
- When loading a skin on certain gaming character rigs, the exposure of some of the drawings in the affected layers is reduced to one frame.