Toon Boom has re-engineered Harmony’s vector technology to deliver a redesigned pencil line technology, one that provides studio artists with an uncompromised level of artistic freedom that is both easy to use and allows total control.
Key aspects of this new technology include the following:
Pressure support Create pencil lines (centre lines) that capture the pressure information from the digital tablet to produce a simple line that is both easy to work with and edit.
Configurable "Pencil Line Tips" Control pencil line tips by selecting between round, square, or free control options. Once the line is drawn, simply choose what the end, or tip, of the line will look like.
Texture information Create unlimited line styles via new pencil line support texture (pixmap) information that is stamped along the centre of the pencil line. Use the wide selection of built-in textures, or simply create your own textures by using a pixmap program.
Pencil Line Template Store and design unlimited pencil line styles, then apply them to any pencil line in the drawing. The option to apply a different style with just one click accelerates the clean-up process, superseding the time-consuming process of redrawing or manually editing the line.
New Deformation Technology
Harmony now includes a powerful deformation technology tool that permits the deformation of pixmap images and vector drawings over a period of time. These deformers can be linked to create a hierarchy of deformations; simply deform a single image and make it move!
There are two main types of deformers:
Bones Deformers Bone deformers allow you to create a basic skeleton structure in which the parent deformer will move the child deformers. This is useful when animating the extremities of a character, for example areas such as the arms or legs, to make the animation appear more fluid and natural.
Curves Deformers As is the case with Bone deformers, Curve deformers can be used as part of a hierarchy, thereby permitting complete flexibility. For example: when editing curves, simply deform a straight line into an arc or a zigzag with just a few clicks.
New Particles Plug-in and SDK Infrastructure
Harmony includes a completely redesigned SDK infrastructure, one that facilitates the creation of powerful plug-ins such as the new Particles plug-in. Having particles in Harmony streamlines the production process and allows for easy access to predefined special effects like:
Fire Rain Clouds Fog Generic; allows you to create unique effects 2D-3D Integration
Harmony offers the first integrated 2D-3D flagship animation solution, allowing you to import both 3D models and scenes into Harmony. From there, simply manipulate all of the 2D and 3D elements into a unified environment and render them together. Harmony’s 3D space goes even further, facilitating transformation on all three axes and authorizing compositing with external Z-buffer sources such as IFF images.
