Colour View

The Colour view is where you create colours and palettes and import existing palettes into your project. The Colour view is also necessary for drawing, painting and creating colour styling.

Palette List Panel

Icon Option Description

View Menu

The View menu contains all the commands and options that you can use in the Colour view to manage colours and palettes.

 

Collapse/Expand Palette List

Allows you to show or hide your palette list and its options. By default, the palette list is displayed, but you may want to hide it if you are working with a single palette and want to allow more vertical space for the colour swatch list.

Add Palette

Allows you to create a new palette.

Remove Palette

Deletes the currently selected palette. If the colour swatch is used in your project, zones painted with colour swatches which have been deleted will turn red, easily identifying them so you can repaint them with another colour swatch.

Red deleted colours

Link Palette

Allows you to add a palette from a different location, be it in a scene, job, environment or even an element to your palette list. The palette will be linked to its original location rather than copied to your scene's folder. Hence, if you make changes to the original palette, it will affect the colour of elements in your scene.

If you want to import a palette as a copy into your scene's palette library, right-click on your palette list and select Import. You can also link to a palette in any location on your machine or network by selecting Link to External.

Order Palette List

Moves palettes further up or down the palette list.

If a palette has been cloned, the highest palette among the original palette and its clone(s) will be used by Harmony. This can be overridden by using a Colour-Override effect—see Colour-Override Node.

Edit Palette List Mode Indicator

In Harmony Server, this icon appears when you have the modifying rights on your scene's palette list. While several users can work on a scene at the same time, only one user may have the right to modify a palette list at any given time.

NOTE In Harmony Stand Alone, you can always modify your scene's palette list. On Harmony Server, you must unlock your palette list before making modifications to it.
Show Colour Palettes Shows only colour palettes in the palette list. This is the default option.
Show Pencil Texture Palettes Shows only pencil texture palettes in the palette list—see About Pencil Line Textures.
Show All Palettes Shows both colour and pencil texture palettes in the palette list.

Palette List

Icon Description
In Harmony Server, this indicates that you have the rights to modify the palette.

Indicates that the palette is stored at the same level as its palette list. For example, a palette that is stored in the scene's palette library and which is listed in the scene's palette list, or a palette that is stored in an element's palette library and which is listed in that same element's palette list.

Indicates that the palette file is stored in an external location, such as a different scene, an element in a different scene, a job other than the scene's job, an environment other than the scene's environment, or a custom location on your file system or network. This means the palette is liable to be missing if it is moved from its original location, or if the scene is exported from the database into an offline scene or to a different database.

This indicates that the palette is stored at a higher level than its palette list, making it a shared palette. For example, a palette in your scene's palette list that is stored in the palette library of the scene's job or environment, or a palette in an element's palette list that is stored in the palette library of the scene.

Indicates a potentially dangerous situation. For example, a palette file that is stored in one of the scene's element folders, but which is added to your scene's palette list. The whole scene can use the palette, but since it's stored inside an element, deleting that element will make your whole scene lose access to that palette.

Colour Swatch List Panel

Icon Option Description

Add Colour

Adds a new colour swatch to the bottom of your colour list.

Remove Colour

The Remove Colour button lets you delete the currently selected colour swatches. If the colour swatch is used in your project, and confirmation dialog will appear prompting you to confirm that you want to delete the colour. Zones painted with colour swatches which have been deleted will turn red, easily identifying them so you can repaint them with another colour swatch.

Red deleted colours

Add Texture

Allows you to import a bitmap image as a texture, which can be painted with just like a colour. When used with the Brush or Paint tools, bitmap textures are tiled inside the shape they fill. The scaling and position of the texture inside their shape can be tweaked with the Edit Gradient/Texture tool. When used with the Pencil tool or one of the Shape tools, a bitmap texture will follow the pencil line's direction.

Textured Colour Swatch

Set Current Brush Colour

When enabled, the colour you select in the colour view will be selected for the Brush tool.

Set Current Pencil Colour

When enabled, the colour you select in the colour view will be selected for the Pencil tool, as well as other tools that create pencil lines, such as the Line, Rectangle, Ellipse and Polyline tools.

Set Current Paint Colour

When enabled, the colour you select in the colour view will be selected for the Paint tool.

Link/Unlink Three Colours

When enabled, the colour you select will be selected for all drawing tools. When disabled, you can select individual colours for the Brush, Pencil and Paint tools.

Linked Colours in the Colour View

Edit Palette Mode

In Harmony Server, this allows you to get the modifying rights to the selected palettes.

Since several people can work on any given scene at the same time, and a palette can be shared between scenes, palettes may be loaded in read-only mode when opening a scene on a Harmony database. Then, an user would only be able to edit a palette by first activating Edit Palette Mode. This prevents several users from making changes on the palette at the same time, since a user cannot activate Edit Palette Mode on a palette that is already being edited by someone else. This also prevents users from accidentally making modifications on important palettes.

Edit Palette Mode Indicator

In Harmony Server, this icon appears when you have the modifying rights on the currently selected palette.

NOTE In Harmony Stand Alone, you can always modify your palettes.
  Colour Swatch Name

Each colour swatch available in the Colour view can have its own name, making it easy to identify which colour is used to paint what part of your character or background.

NOTE Two colours can have the same name. Harmony identifies colours by an identification number.
 

Colour Swatch

Also referred to as colour pots, the colour swatch is the actual colour information for a colour in your palette. It is represented by a rectangle displaying the colour in the list.

Colour Editor Panel

The Colour Editor panel is an optional panel in the Colour view which can be enabled to edit your colour swatches on the go.

Option Description
Enable/Disable Tint Options

This collapses or expands the Tint section of the Colour Editor panel.

When tint options are enabled, the Colour Editor panel can be used to add a tint to the colour. This means that all sliders start with a value of 0 and that the new colour will be calculated relative to the old colour, using the algorithm chosen in the Tint Mode option. As you change the values of the colour sliders, the colour in your palette is not updated immediately. Rather, it is only updated when you click on the Apply button.

When Tint options are disabled, the Colour Editor panel only has colour sliders, and those sliders start out with the values of the selected colour. Changing the value of any of the colour sliders immediately updates the colour in your palette with the new value.

Tint Mode

Allows you to select how the colour will be modified by the tint:

  • Offset: The chosen tint's colour values will be added to the selected colour's values to make the new colour. You can choose negative values if you wish to subtract from the selected colour's values.
  • Blend: The selected colour will be blended with the selected tint, resulting in the average between the selected colour and the tint.
Reset In tint mode, this sets all the colour sliders to their neutral value, leaving the selected colour unchanged.
Apply In tint mode, this applies the tint to the selected colour. Note that when tint mode is not enabled, changes to the selected colour are automatically applied.
H (Hue) Sets the hue of the colour or tint.
S (Saturation) Sets the saturation level of the colour or tint.
V (Value)

Sets the value of the colour or tint.

R (Red) Sets the red value of the colour or tint.
G (Green) Sets the green value of the colour or tint.
B (Blue) Sets the blue value of the colour or tint.
a (Alpha) Sets the alpha (transparency) value of the colour or tint.