Getting started with Harmony

Welcome to Toon Boom Harmony! In this article, you will be shown how to open a new Harmony project and start creating in a few easy steps.

If you have not yet installed Harmony, please see one of the following articles based on your operating system:

• How do I install Harmony on Windows?
• How do I install Harmony on macOS?

Step 1: Open Harmony

Once Harmony is installed, you may automatically have a shortcut on your desktop that looks something like the image on the right. If so, double-click this icon to open the program.

If the icon is not on your desktop, do one of the following:

• In Windows, open the Start menu and select Harmony from the list of programs.
• In MacOS, open Finder > Applications and double-click Toon Boom Harmony.

Step 2: Create a scene

When you first open Harmony, a splash screen may appear. Dismiss the splash screen and you will be greeted by the Welcome screen:

There are many fields that can be edited depending on your needs. For now, we will only focus on a few fields as the default properties are set for commonly used industry standards and will work perfectly well for casual projects.

1. In the Name field, type the name you want to give your scene. 
2. In the Location field, choose a suitable location on your computer for the scene to be saved. The Documents folder under your username will work.
3. Ignore the other fields for now and click Create Scene to open a new Harmony file.

Step 3: Get acquainted with basic views and toolbars

A new project will open in Harmony’s default workspace. We will be using the following highlighted areas for this exercise:  

1. Timeline view: This view contains our layers, drawing frames, and timing.
2. Camera view: This view shows us all the elements in a selected frame of our scene (what the camera sees). We will be creating our artwork here.
3. Tools toolbar: Contains drawing, editing and transformation tools.
4. Playback toolbar: Lets us play our animation.

These numbers will be repeated in the next steps when these areas are mentioned, so feel free to download or print the above image to use as you follow along.

Step 4: Create a simple animation

1. In the Timeline view (1), select the default Drawing layer.

2. When you first open Harmony, the Brush tool is selected by default. If not, select it in the Tools toolbar (3).
3. Click on the Camera view (2) and draw the first frame of your animation. You can increase/decrease the size of the brush by holding ‘O’ and clicking and holding the mouse/tablet pen while moving to enlarge/shrink the brush cursor. 
4. In the Timeline view (1), you will see a frame has automatically been created on the Drawing layer.

5. Click on the Timeline view (1) and select the second frame on the Drawing layer (it will be empty). This will automatically move the playhead to that frame.

6. Select the Camera view again and draw the next movement in your animation. Another frame will be automatically added to your timeline. 

7. Continue selecting the next empty frame in the Timeline view (1), and drawing artwork in the Camera view (2) to continue your animation.

Step 5: Additional tips and tricks

The following basic tips are useful to help you as you create:

• Add new Timeline view layers by using the shortcut Ctrl + R (Windows) or CMD + R (macOS). You can also use the Add Layers dropdown menu in the Timeline view (1) to add a ‘Drawing’.

• Activate the Light Table tool at the bottom of the Camera view to lighten artwork on deselected layers.

• Activate the Show Onion Skin tool in the Tools toolbar (3) to see the next and previous frames of your animation.

• In the Playback toolbar (4), use the Playbutton to play your animation.

• Add a Colour-Card layer to your scene to create a quick, solid coloured backdrop that will prevent your scene from rendering with a black background. You can add one by using the Add Layers dropdown menu in the Timeline view (1).

• Export your scene by using one of the options under the File > Export option in the top menu. 

Q&A 

Question: 

Where can I learn more about the drawing tools?

Answers: 

The articles found under the Help Centre’s Drawing Tools section cover Harmony’s drawing and editing tools:

• Harmony Premium and Advanced
• Harmony Essentials

Question: 

Where can I learn more about the Welcome Screen and scene settings?

Answer: 

1. For Welcome Screen settings, see Creating a Scene.
2. For project settings, see the following:
   • Harmony Premium
   • Harmony Advanced
   • Harmony Essentials

Question: 

Why am I struggling to activate the views?

Answer: 

By default, Harmony requires that you click on each view to activate it before using its features. You can enable an auto-activate tool in your preferences so that each view activates as you hover. For more information, see How do I automatically activate a view without having to click on it?