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Toon Boom Harmony and Storyboard Pro are softwares made for creating stories and animation using 2D artwork, however both softwares also make use of a 3D space. This not only allows you to position 2D elements with more spatial freedom, but it also allows for the integration of 3D objects made in external 3D softwares. Having a better understanding of 3D space and how to navigate it can greatly improve your versatility in Toon Boom software.
In this article we look at what 3D space is and how the 3D axes exist in Harmony and Storyboard Pro.
What is 3D space?
The ‘D’ in 2D and 3D stands for ‘dimension’. A 2-dimensional artwork can only be seen effectively from one angle, like a painting. Whereas a 3-dimensional artwork can be seen from all angles, like a sculpture. This is because the 2D art only allows you to see the length of 2 dimensions, but when viewed from the side, a 2D artwork will look completely flat, like a piece of paper. When you add a third dimension, that paper-like appearance gains volume and depth, allowing you to see the artwork as a sculpture or a cube instead of a flat image.
Below is an example of what a 2D artwork and a 3D model look like from different angles. As you can see, the 2D artwork becomes distorted from an angle, and simply becomes a line from the side, whereas the 3D model retains its shape and volume from all angles:
| 2D from the Front | 3D from the front |
| 2D from an angle | 3D from an angle |
| 2D from the side | 3D from the side |
What are axes?
The axes are what defines an object as two or three dimensional. 2D objects exist only on the X and Y axes, and 3D objects exist on the X, Y and Z axes. Each axis is a dimension.
The X axis runs across the screen from left to right horizontally. The Y-axis runs from the top to the bottom of the screen vertically. The Z-axis runs away from the viewer into the distance. Therefore, it makes sense that if we want to create depth dimensionally, we will use the Z-axis to do this, whereas the X and Y axes are used to set up simpler positions from a compositional perspective.
When it comes to 2D art, we can fake depth by using perspective guides, overlapping shapes and lighting. However sometimes a scene calls for more complex positioning and movements that are easier to achieve by using the actual Z-axis to create depth.
| X and Y axes in 2D space | X, Y and Z axes in 3D space |
What is a multiplane?
Even though 2D artwork is flat, it can still exist in a 3D space as a plane, and can be moved away or towards the viewer on the Z-axis. This is one of the roles the Z-axis plays in the Harmony and Storyboard Pro workspaces.
When this is done in 2D animation, it is called a ‘multiplane’.
When adding a camera movement on a multiplane, we create a ‘parallax effect’. A parallax effect is the effect created when there is a camera movement and the 2D layers positioned in the Z-space naturally move faster and slower based on their distance from the camera as it moves.
This means that we can create a feeling of depth in our scenes even when using flat, 2D planes.
| NOTE: If you create a multi-layered background to use as a multiplane, it is important to draw each layer fully. Even if some parts of a background layer are hidden behind a foreground layer in the camera's initial position, panning or zooming the camera may expose parts of background layers that are not initially visible. |
3D Related articles
If you like to learn more about using the 3D space in Harmony and Storyboard Pro specifically, refer to the following articles: