About bitmap and vector in Harmony

Harmony Premium and Advanced offer two types of artwork/layers to allow for easy import, editing and creation of elements. This article will cover the properties, pros, cons and uses of vector and bitmap artwork in Harmony.

What is a vector?

A vector is a line or shape that is determined with a mathematical equation that constantly recalculates itself. This means that after drawing the artwork, it can be resampled and recoloured in any way and will not lose its quality. Even when zooming in and out, the line will stay sharp. Vector artwork can also be manipulated with points and curves after being drawn, which makes them extremely easy to edit. These points can be found around a contour, or along a single centerline.

Advantages: Very light and easy to tweak. Can be easily manipulated, recoloured and edited after being drawn. Can be zoomed in on or scaled up without losing quality. Tends to be lighter in file size when optimized correctly.

Disadvantages: Does not support textures or advanced blending. 

Recommended Use: Sketches and clean drawings with a solid and uniform outline style. Line-art on rigs.

In Harmony, vector artwork can only be created on a vector art layer. To see what drawing tools can create vector artwork in Harmony, see About Harmony’s drawing tools.

What is a bitmap?

Bitmap artwork is a line or shape that is created with individual pixels. Zooming in on a bitmap image will cause it to become pixelated or blurry. This is because the quality of the artwork is determined by how many pixels you can see within one inch of your digital canvas. This image cannot be resized or resampled without the quality being compromised in some way, and it cannot be as easily edited as a vector after it has been drawn. 

A benefit to using bitmap is that it allows for the creation of natural textures, blending, and pixel by pixel editing, and can closely replicate the feeling of paint strokes or traditional media. 

Advantages: Can reproduce the look of natural media. Can be edited pixel by pixel.

Disadvantages: Strokes are always flattened together and can only be modified individually when manually separated. Can only be drawn on, erased or cut. Scaling up or zooming in on artwork is likely to make it lose picture quality.

Recommended Use: Artwork that requires a lot of texture and blending, like backgrounds or textured surfaces.

In Harmony, bitmap artwork can only be created on a bitmap art layer by a specific set of tools. To see what drawing tools can create bitmap artwork in Harmony, see About Harmony’s drawing tools.

Hybrid artwork

In Harmony, the Brush tool can create a line that incorporates both vector and bitmap properties. This is known as a Textured Vector Brush line. These lines consist of bitmap textures contained within vector envelopes, which results in the editing capabilities of a vector line with the texture of a bitmap. 

This still means that you may lose quality on the bitmap texture when editing and resampling the line, but the vector capabilities allow for easier editing and integration with other vector artwork.

Only the Brush tool can create hybrid lines on vector layers. 

Advantages: Has the benefits of a bitmap brush, but can be manipulated, edited and recoloured like solid vector brushes.

Disadvantages: Overlapping strokes can make the drawing heavy on application performance and file sizes. Strokes of different colours cannot be flattened together. Tweaking, scaling up or zooming in on artwork is liable to make it lose texture quality.

Recommended Use: For light bitmap-style textured artwork or mixed-style artwork. Useful for the application of texture on animation and rigs when optimized correctly.

How do I switch a layer between bitmap or vector?

Although you can change a Harmony art layer to vector or bitmap, take note that any bitmap artwork switched to a vector layer will not have its shape vectorized, but will rather be placed inside a vector envelope as a flat image. This will also happen to any vector artwork that is converted to bitmap and then switched back to vector.

To learn how to switch between the layer types, please see How do I convert a layer to bitmap or vector?

Bitmap and vector during import

The following table shows a summary of your options for importing bitmap and vector artwork. All options can be found under the File > Import menu. 

Bitmap and vector during export

The following table shows a summary of your options for exporting bitmap and vector artwork. These can be found under the File > Import menu, or in Harmony Premium’s Write node settings.