Staging and Animate Layers

Staging refers to the art of positioning your scene elements (characters, props and background) within or purposefully out of the boundary of the scene’s camera. Once staged, your scene elements are ready to be animated.

Positioning Layers

Positioning layers, also known as posing, is a key step in setting up your scene. To pose your scene elements, you can use the Transform tool. This will allow you to translate, rotate, scale and transform your scene elements so that they can be staged and prepared for animation.

  1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Transform tool or press Shift + T.
  1. In the Tool Properties view, make sure Peg Selection Mode is disabled.

  1. In the Camera or Timeline view, click on the layer you want to manipulate to select it.

    A manipulator control box appears around the selected layer.

    TIPS
    • If you want to select multiple layers in the Camera view, hold down Shift and click on each layer you wish to select.
    • If you want to select multiple layers in the Timeline view, hold down Ctrl (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ (macOS) and click on each layer you wish to select.
    • If you want to select a contiguous series of layers in the Timeline view, hold down Shift, click on the first layer you want to select, then on the last layer you want to select.
  1. Transform your drawing elements using the following methods:

    • To translate: Hover the cursor over the artwork. When the cursor changes into a, click and drag on the artwork to move it.

    • To rotate: Place the cursor over one of the yellow corner control points of the bounding box. When the cursor changes into a , click and drag to rotate the drawing layer clockwise or counter-clockwise.

    • To scale:Place the cursor over any of the yellow control points on the bounding box. When the cursor changes into a , click and drag to scale the layer.

      NOTE To scale your drawing layer proportionally, hold down Shift as you click and drag the control point.

    • To skew: Place the cursor over the vertical or horizontal edge of the bounding box. When the cursor changes into a or a , click and drag along the axis of the chosen layer.

Repositioning the Pivot

Transformations made on a drawing layer, such as rotation, scale, skew and flip, are made relative to the position of the drawing's pivot point. Setting the pivot point at the center of the articulation will allow the drawing layer's pieces to transform as expected.

There are two ways to reposition your pivot. You can reposition a pivot in a temporary or permanent manner.

To reposition the pivot temporarily, activate the transform tool, click and drag your pivot. This has no permanent effect. It will only temporarily change the pivot's position allowing you to make transformations at the selected frame, but the actual pivot point of your drawing layer will remain the same.

NOTE When you translate the pivot point, a gray circle will remain at the place of origin, indicating the temporary state of the adjustment.

To reposition your pivot permanently, you will need to adjust your pivot using one of the tools in the Advanced Animation toolbar. Once you have permanently adjusted the pivot, your pivot will appear in the new chosen position.

NOTE When you permanently move the pivot point of a layer that is already animated, all the transformations done on the layer on other keyframes will be recalculated according to the new pivot point's position. Therefore, your existing animation will look completely different, except at the current frame. It is recommended to always make sure your pivot point is at its ideal position before you start animating.
  1. In the Advanced Animation toolbar, select the Translate , Rotate , Scale , or Skew tool.
  1. Do one of the following:
    • In the Timeline view, select the layer for which you want to move the pivot.
    • In the Camera view, Ctrl + click (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + click (macOS) on the layer for which you want to move the pivot.

The pivot point appears in the Camera view.

  1. Move the cursor over the pivot point. When the mouse cursor becomes , click and drag on the pivot point to reposition it.

The layer's pivot point is now repositioned. If the layer has been animated, its position will be offset across the scenes relative to how much you just offset the pivot point.

Animating a Layer

Once you have successfully posed your drawing layers, you can begin animating. To animate you can either create Stop-Motion Keyframes or Motion Keyframes in the Timeline.

Stop-Motion Keyframes require you to manually set your keyframes in the Timeline as you pose your elements. Motion Keyframes allow you to set automation for your animation between your set keyframes.

For more information on keyframes, see About Keyframes.

  1. In the Tools toolbar, select the Transform tool or press Shift + T.
  1. In the Tools toolbar, ifAnimate Off or Animate Onion Skin Range mode is selected, click on it to open the Animate pop-up menu and select Animate Current Frame.

  1. If your layer has a parent peg:

    • If you want to animate on the peg instead of the layer, make sure that Peg Selection Mode is enabled in the Tool Properties view.
    • If you want to animate directly on the layer, make sure that Peg Selection Mode is disabled in the Tool Properties view.
  1. In the Timeline view, go to the first frame.

Set first Keyframe

  1. From the top menu, select Animation and make sure the Stop-Motion Keyframe option is unchecked. This will make it so Harmony automatically creates the animation between the animation keyframes you create.
  1. Select the cell where you want to create your first keyframe

  1. To create your first keyframe, do one of the following:

    • In the Timeline toolbar, click the Add Keyframe button.
    • Right-click and select Add Keyframe.
    • Press F6.

A keyframe is created on the first frame of the Timeline view.

  1. In the Camera view, select the element to animate and move, rotate, scale or skew it so that it is in its proper starting position.

  1. In the Timeline view, go to the frame on which you want to set the second position.

Select Last Frame

  1. Select the cell where you want to create your second keyframe. right-click on the selection and select Insert Keyframe.

The second keyframe appears in the Timeline view, along with a line going from your first keyframe to your second keyframe. This indicates that every frame in-between will be animated by Harmony.

  1. In the Camera view, move, rotate, scale or skew the element to that it is in its proper second position.

  1. In the Timeline view, select the first frame to rewind to the beginning of your animation.
  1. In the Playback toolbar, click on the Play button to preview your animation.
NOTE If your scene has 3D objects, or if you animate layers on the Z axis, you may want to preview your animations from the Top, Side or Perspective views during playback. However, playback is disabled by default in those view. To enable them, from the top menu, select Play > Enable Playback > Top View, Side View or Perspective View.