Field Chart Node

The Field Chart node displays a traditional animation field chart, which allows you to position elements in the Camera view. The Field Chart node doesn't export. If you want to export a field chart, use the Grid node—see Grid Node.

Field Chart Properties

Parameter Description
Name Allows you to change the name given to the node.
Drawing
Size

Adjusts the number of units in the grid (field chart). The grid size will always be a 4:3 ratio, as per traditional animation standards. The gird is available in 12 or 16 fields.

Opaque

Inserts a white background behind the grid and covers everything else behind it. By default, you can see through the grid.

Antialiasing

Antialiasing Quality: The smoothness (antialiasing) setting used to make the crisp vector contours appear smooth.

  • None - No Transparency: Dsables antialiasing, renders semi-transparent pixels either fully opaque or fully transparent, and fills single-pixel gaps with an opaque pixel to avoid generating out-of-place gaps when lines intersect each other.
  • Low: Disables antialiasing, but renders transparency.
  • Medium Low: Renders vector artwork with basic antialiasing.
  • Medium: Renders vector shapes with improved antialiasing. Bitmap texture fills will appear blurred.
  • High: Renders vector shapes with improved antialiasing, without blurring bitmap texture fills.
TIP It is recommended to leave this setting to High unless you are working on a pencil test, or another type of scene where rendering speed is more important than rendering quality.
TIP If the production requires exporting line art without antialiasing to colour them in a third-party software, it is recommended to use the None - No Transparency setting. This setting automatically fills one-pixel gaps created by crisp lines intersecting each other, which would otherwise need to be filled manually in the third-party software.

Antialiasing Exponent: Determines how much the artwork is scaled up to apply antialiasing onto it. A higher value will results in sharper edges, and a lower value will result in softer edges. Typical values range between 0 and 3. Higher values may be attempted but may result in overly crisp outlines. Negative values will cause the outlines to appear blurry.

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 Settings dialog box) or imported bitmap images. The drawings are then scaled to match the 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.

  • Left: The default alignment for drawings; aligns the drawings to the left side of the scene’s alignment rectangle. Harmony scales the drawings to match their height to the alignment rectangle of the scene.
  • Right: Aligns the drawings to the right side of the alignment rectangle. Harmony scales the drawings to match their height to the height of the alignment rectangle of the scene.
  • Top: Aligns the drawings to the top of the alignment rectangle. Harmony scales the drawings to match their widths to the width of the alignment rectangle of the scene.
  • Bottom: Aligns the drawings to the bottom of the alignment rectangle. Harmony scales the drawings to match their widths to the width of the alignment rectangle of the scene.
  • Centre Fit: Centers the drawings.
  • Centre Fill: Centers the drawings and then scales them so the width or height fills the available space.
  • Centre LR: Aligns the drawings in the left-right centre of the alignment rectangle. Harmony scales the drawings to match their height to the height of the alignment rectangle of the scene.
  • Centre TB: Aligns the drawings in the top-bottom centre of the alignment rectangle. Harmony scales the drawings to match their widths to the width of the alignment rectangle of the scene.
  • Stretch: Scales the drawings so they fit within the alignment rectangle of the scene. This is particularly useful for images that you will manipulate with a Quadmap node. If the drawings in the Quadmap node 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 to make the handles appear on the corner of the image. This can have the effect of distorting the images, but it is not an issue with images that will be distorted through the Quadmap node anyways.
  • As Is: Leaves the drawings aligned as they are.
  • Centre First Page: Aligns the centre of the first part of a standard pan cel with the centre of the field chart.
Turn Before Alignment

Turn Before Alignment: Rotates the drawings in the selected element 90 degrees to the left before scaling and aligning them according to the alignment rule, and before performing any offset, rotation or scaling for the element or peg. This and the Alignment Rule are intended for drawings that were created on paper of a different size or orientation than the other paper in the scene, and requires alignment so they are treated accurately.

Depth

Overrides the order of cables in the node system to determine the forward/backward order in which this element is rendered. The Z position value overrides the depth value.

Position
Animate Using Animation Tools

By default, the grid can be animated using the same parameters as a peg, but you can disable this feature so the field chart remains in place. You can connect it to a peg to animate it or move it.

When this option is deselected, you cannot move the layer in the Camera view using the Transform and Advanced tools. This prevents you from accidentally displacing or modifying a layer.

Position

3D Path: Use a 3D path to position the element. A 3D path uses a single function to define the position on the X, Y and Z axes. This function is made of control points linked by a curvilinear path, making the movement follow a natural curve. The pace and ease of the movement is determined by a single velocity function.

Separate: Positions the element using separate functions for the X, Y and Z axes. This allows to control the direction and pace of the movement across all three axes separately. Unless ease is applied to the axes, the trajectory of the element will follow straight lines going between each keyframe.

Path: If the 3D Path option is selected, this field allows you to create or select the 3D Path function used to position the element.

Path (x) Axis: The position of the element on the East-West axis, in fields.

Path (y) Axis: The position of the element on the South-North axis, in fields.

Path (z) Axis: The position of the element in the Back-Front axis, in fields.

Velocity: If the 3D Path option is selected, this function is used to control the pace at which the element moves towards each control point in the 3D Path function, on all three axes simultaneously.

Scale

Locked: Uses a single scale parameter to scale the element, preserving its proportions.

Separate: Uses a separate parameter to scale the element on the X and Y axis, as well as on the Y axis if the element is 3D-enabled, allowing to stretch or squash the element.

(x) Axis: The horizontal scale factor. The default value is 1.

(y) Axis: The vertical scale factor. The default value is 1.

(z) Axis: The depth scale factor for 3D-enabled elements. The default value is 1.

Scale in Fields: With this option enabled, the scale factor is based on the amount of fields in the scene. For example, to shrink one of the dimensions of an element to half its original size, the scale factor would normally bet set to 0.5. If this option is enabled and the amount of fields in the scene is 12, then the scale factor to shrink the element by half would be 6.

Angle Z

Lets you 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.

Pivot

(x) Axis: The horizontal position of the pivot point of the element relative to the pivot point of the drawing, in fields.

(y) Axis: The vertical position of the pivot point of the element relative to the pivot point of the drawing, in fields.