TBStudioV35 UserGuide

V3.
5 User Guide
Legal Notices
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For additional copies of this manual, please contact Toon Boom Animation Inc. at the Corporate
Headquarters address.
Copyright © 2006 by Toon Boom Animation Inc. All rights reserved.
Trademarks
Toon Boom Studio is a trademark owned by Toon Boom Animation Inc. All other trademarks
are the property of their respective owners.
Credits
Documentation Development: Peter Cawthorne, Tamu Townsend
Content Development and Art: Tania Gray
Publication Date
September 2006
Contents
Preface
About Toon Boom Studio..................................................................... 9
Toon Boom Studio 10
User Interface: Drawing and Importing Media 10
User Interface: Sceneplanning and Animating 13
Animating Using Pegs 17
Step-by-Step: Creating in Toon Boom Studio 17
Creating and Gathering the Content 17
Adding the Sound Track 19
Inking and Painting Your Drawings 20
Changing the Sequence and Timing of Drawings and Images 20
Sceneplanning and Animating Elements 22
Exporting 23
Animating Cut-Out Style 24
Drawing Cut-out Characters 25
Grouping Cut-out Components 26
Sceneplanning Tools and Cut-out Characters 26
Reusing Cut-out Assets 27
New and Improved Features in V3.5 28
About the Documentation 30
Document Conventions 31
Chapter 1
Studio Basics .................................................................................... 33
Launching Toon Boom Studio 34
Starting Your Animation Project 36
Creating A New Project 36
Opening An Existing Project 37
Opening a recently used project 38
Opening Tutorials 38
Accessing Web Resources 39
Saving Animation Projects 40
Setting the Animation Frame Rate and Camera Size 42
Selecting Preset Animation Properties 43
Adding Scenes to a Movie 45
Changing the Background Color of a Scene 46
Reordering Scenes 47
Renaming Scenes 47
Showing/Hiding Scenes 48
Deleting Scenes 49
Setting up Your Studio Session 50
1
Toon Boom Studio V3.5 User Guide
Saving and Loading Window Layouts 50
Customizing Toolbars on MacOS 52
Displaying Toolbars on Windows 53
Changing the Background Color of the Drawing and Camera View Windows 53
Assigning Keyboard Shortcuts 55
Selecting Units of Measure 57
Configuring Video Card Display Options 58
Chapter 2
Drawing .............................................................................................61
Creating and Navigating Drawings and Drawing Layers 62
Drawing Line Art 63
Drawing in the Drawing or Camera View 65
Drawing Straight Lines, Ellipses and Rectangles 66
Drawing with the Polyline Tool 67
Drawing Brush Strokes 68
Drawing Pencil Lines 70
Converting Centerline Shapes to Brush Strokes 71
Working With Text 72
Creating Text 72
Formatting Text 73
Changing Text Color 75
Converting Text Into Separate Objects 76
Working with Selections 78
Grouping Drawing Objects 79
Ordering Drawing Objects 80
Resizing, Flipping, Rotating and Moving Drawing Objects 81
Changing the Center of Transformation 82
Cutting, Copying, and Pasting Drawing Objects 84
Deforming a Drawing Object 85
Changing the Color of Brush Strokes, Fills and Centerline Objects 86
Changing the Thickness of Centerline Objects 87
Optimizing Drawing Objects for the Web 88
Converting Brush Strokes to Pencil Lines 89
Reducing Drawing Layers with the Optimize Command 91
Reducing Drawing Layers with the Flatten Command 92
Removing Points with the Smooth Command 93
Merging Layers Using Draw Top Layer 95
Cutting and Erasing Drawing Objects 96
Using the Scissor to Cut Parts from Drawing Objects 97
Erasing Parts from Drawing Objects 98
Using the Cutter to Separate Regions in Drawing Objects 99
Modifying the Shape of Vector Lines 100
Reshaping Centerline Shapes 101
2
Contents
Reshaping Brush Strokes 102
Adding Points to Vector Shapes 104
Deleting Points from Vector Shapes 105
Setting Up Your Pens 107
Creating and Removing Pen Styles 108
Modifying a Pen Style 109
Setting Up Your Drawing Space 110
Displaying the Drawing Grid 111
Rotating the Drawing Space 113
Onion Skin: Displaying the Next and Previous Drawings 115
Setting Onion Skin Options 116
Static Light Table: Displaying Selected Drawings 118
Changing the Display of Objects in the Static Light Table 119
Auto Light Table: Displaying All Images in a Frame 121
Zooming and Panning the View Window 122
Chapter 3
Importing Artwork........................................................................... 125
Importing Static Images (Bitmaps) 126
Creating Transparent Bitmaps 127
Vectorizing Bitmaps 129
Importing Illustrator and PDF Files 131
Importing Flash Movies 133
Repositioning All Drawings 134
Scanning, Importing and Vectorizing Bitmaps 135
Chapter 4
Inking and Painting ......................................................................... 139
Coloring Your Toon Boom Studio World 140
Swatches 141
Adding a Swatch 142
Changing the Color Values in a Swatch 143
Creating a Gradient Swatch 144
Changing the Transparency of a Swatch 146
Naming a Swatch 147
Creating a Bitmap Swatch 149
Setting a Bitmap Swatch to Tile or Stretch 149
Painting Zones in Your Drawings 151
Painting a Zone with a Solid Swatch 152
Painting Zones with Gradients and Textures 153
Editing Gradient and Texture Fills 155
Copying Gradient and Texture Fills 158
Power Painting Drawings in an Element 159
Picking a Swatch from a Line or Zone 160
3
Unpainting Zones/Line Art 161
Closing Gaps in Your Drawings 163
Manually Closing Gaps 163
Auto Gap Close Options 165
Inking Line Art 166
Managing Your Colors with Palettes 167
Creating a Palette 168
Copying a Palette 168
Renaming a Palette 170
Deleting a Palette 170
Creating Multiple Palette Styles 171
Renaming a Palette Style 172
Deleting a Palette Style 173
Offsetting Colors in a Palette Style 174
Blending a Color into a Palette Style 176
Importing and Exporting Palettes 178
Importing Palettes 178
Exporting Palettes 179
Chapter 5
Adding Sound ..................................................................................181
Importing Sounds 182
Event and Streamed Sounds 183
Playing the Sound in Your Animation 184
Editing Sounds 185
Changing the Start or End Frame of a Sound 186
Trimming the Start and End of a Sound File 187
Looping a Sound 188
Fading the Sound In and Out 189
Viewing the Waveform in the Exposure Sheet 190
Customizing the Playback Range 191
Lip Synching 192
Sound Scrubbing 193
Changing the Lip Assignment of a Sound 194
Automatically Mapping Lip Sync Drawings 196
Adding Lip Sync Notes 197
Recomputing the Lip Chart 198
Chapter 6
Laying Out Elements in 3D Space.....................................................199
Basic Sceneplanning Concepts 200
Using the View Windows 200
Zooming and Panning View Windows 202
Switching Views 203
4
Contents
Resetting the Scene View 204
Selecting Elements 204
Repositioning Elements 207
Changing the NS/EW Position of an Element 208
Changing the FB Position of an Element 209
Defining an Element’s Layering Order 210
Scaling Elements 211
Changing the Scale Pivot Point Position 214
Rotating Elements 216
Changing the Rotation Pivot Point Position 218
Chapter 7
Animating ....................................................................................... 221
Animating Elements with Pegs 222
Adding Peg Elements and Attaching Child Elements 223
Building Peg Hierarchies 225
Displaying Peg Hierarchies 226
Using Keyframes and Timeline Properties 228
Adding Keyframes for Motion, Rotation, Skewing and Scaling 229
Tweening Motion or Maintaining Constant Values Between Keyframes 230
Copying and Pasting Keyframe Values 233
Copying and Moving Frames in the Timeline 235
Pasting Selected Frame Properties in the Timeline 237
Changing the Duration of a Peg Element 239
Looping a Peg 240
Animating Rotation with the Rotate Tool 242
Animating Size Changes with the Scale Tool 245
Animating Skewing with the Skew Tool 248
Creating Motion Paths with the Motion Tool 250
Creating a NS or EW Motion Path 252
Creating a FB Motion Path 254
Adding Motion Points to a Motion Path 256
Adding Motion Points with the Motion Point Tab 258
Moving Motion Points with the Motion Point Tab 259
Deleting Motion Points from a Motion Path 261
Locking/Unlocking Control Points 262
Adjusting the Curve Between Motion Points 263
Defining the Default Tension, Continuity and Bias Values 264
Animating with the Transform Tool 266
Repositioning the Pivot Point of the Transform Tool for an Operation 268
Animating Cut-out Characters 270
Building Peg Hierarchies to Animate Cut-Out Characters 270
Positioning Pivot Points on Cut-Out Characters 272
Editing Functions Using the Function Editor 274
5
Adding Keyframes and Changing their Values 275
Reshaping the Plotline Using the Function Editor 277
Changing Your View of the Function Editor 279
Chapter 8
Using the Multiplane Camera ...........................................................281
Camera Effects with Toon Boom Studio 282
Adding Cameras to a Scene 284
Positioning a Camera 285
Zooming the Camera In or Out 289
Zooming the Camera Over Time 291
Changing the Start Frame and Duration of a Dynamic Camera 293
Editing the Dynamic Zooms with the Function Editor 295
Panning and Trucking the Camera 297
Chapter 9
Creating Effects...............................................................................299
Additive and Multiplicative Color Changes 300
Additive Color Changes 301
Multiplicative Color Changes 302
Changing Color Over Time 303
Adding/Removing Keyframes from a Color Transform 305
Flattening a Color Transform Effect Layer 306
Combining Multiple Color Transforms 307
Clipping Mask Effects 308
Creating Clipping Mask Effects 309
Modifying Masks 311
Drop Shadow Effects 313
Creating Drop Shadow Effects 314
Chapter 10
Organizing Elements and Timing......................................................317
Exposure Sheet and Timeline Windows 318
Showing/Hiding Elements 319
Displaying Selected Elements Only in Sceneplanning Views 321
Adding Element/Cell Notes 323
Viewing Cell and Element Notes 324
Changing the Cell Display in the Exposure Sheet 325
Resizing Columns in the Exposure Sheet 327
Changing the Color of an Element 327
Changing the Default Colors of Elements 328
Changing the Timeline Track Color 330
Changing the Timeline Zoom Level 331
Changing the Current Frame in the Timeline 332
6
Contents
Displaying Feet and Frames in the Timeline 333
Splitting the Timeline Window in Two 334
Layering Elements 335
Adding Many Elements to a Scene 337
Changing the Layering Order of Elements 338
Renaming Elements 341
Deleting Elements 341
Duplicating Elements 342
Cloning Elements 343
Sequencing and Timing Drawings and Images 345
Labelling Cells in the Exposure Sheet 346
Inserting a Range of Numbered Cells 347
Changing the Timing (Exposure) of Drawings and Images 349
Swapping Drawings in an Element 351
Changing an Element’s Start Time in the Timeline 353
Inserting Blank Cells in an Element 353
Inserting Blank Frames in a Scene 355
Naming and Renaming a Cell 356
Renaming a Drawing or Image 357
Cutting, Copying and Pasting Cells 357
Creating Cycles 358
Creating Advanced Cycles 360
Protecting Drawings 362
Clearing a Drawing from a Cell 362
Deleting Cells from Elements 363
Chapter 11
Re-using Content ............................................................................ 365
The Library Window 366
Previewing Content in the Library 368
Re-using Drawings and Images from the Current Animation 369
Creating Templates 370
Editing Templates 372
Importing Multimedia Files into the Library 373
Renaming Templates 374
Deleting Templates 374
Viewing a Template’s Properties 375
Defining the Author and Copyright of a Template 376
Using Templates 377
Copying a Template into Your Animation 378
Copying Selected Template Contents into Your Animation 379
Linking Templates to Media Elements 380
Cutting, Copying and Pasting Linked Media Content 381
Using Paste Special to Update Content from a Template 382
7
Creating, Renaming and Deleting Catalogs 384
Creating and Renaming Libraries 386
Loading and Closing Libraries 387
Configuring Global Library Storage 388
Chapter 12
Playback and Rendering ..................................................................389
Previewing a Scene Interactively 390
Setting the Playback Range in the Timeline 391
Real-Time Playback 392
Exporting Your Movie 394
Exporting Drawings to PDF 396
Index ...............................................................................397
8
Preface
About Toon Boom Studio
This chapter describes Toon Boom Studio and its features, including the new
features you’ll enjoy in V3.5.
This chapter contains the following topics:
• Toon Boom Studio on page 10
• New and Improved Features in V3.5 on page 28
• About the Documentation on page 30
Toon Boom Studio

Toon Boom Studio, the leading animation software for individuals, features powerful
drawing tools, time-saving lip sync tools, and innovative 3D layout and animating
tools.
Toon Boom Studio puts powerful creative tools in your hands and increases your
productivity so that you can focus on what counts - your story, your characters and
your vision. With optimized output to Adobe Flash and QuickTime, you can easily
output your animations to the web, video, wireless and beyond.
See Also
User Interface: Drawing and Importing Media on page 10
User Interface: Sceneplanning and Animating on page 13
Animating Using Pegs on page 17
New and Improved Features in V3.5 on page 28
About the Documentation on page 30
User Interface: Drawing and Importing

Media
In Toon Boom Studio, you draw using the Drawing View, Color Palette tab and Pen
tab. You can use either the Exposure Sheet or the Timeline to import, manage and work
out the timing of your content.
10
Preface: About Toon Boom Studio
Drawing View
Use the Drawing View to draw and ink & paint your animated content.
You can use the Onion Skin to see all of the drawings in a layer and the
Auto Light Table to see all of the drawings in a frame.
Color Palette tab

Use the Color Palette tab to build color swatches for your scenes.
With Toon Boom Studio you can build different palettes for each character and prop in
your scene. You can even create palette styles, which allow you to tint all of the
swatches in a palette. When you switch between palette styles, Toon Boom Studio
automatically repaints zones filled with the new color value.
11
Pen tab
Use the Pen tab to organize different pen styles.
Toon Boom Studio can create variable width strokes based on the amount of pressure
you apply when drawing with a graphic tablet and pen.
Exposure Sheet
Use the Exposure Sheet to organize the content of your scenes and set up their timing.
You can use the Exposure Sheet to import image and sound files. From sound files, you
can generate lip charts, which you can use to lip sync your animations.
See Also
12
User Interface: Sceneplanning and

Animating
After you build your content, you will use the Sceneplanning views to animate your
content. You can always retouch drawings in the Camera View that require fixes as a
result of sceneplanning transformations.
With Sceneplanning views, you can:
• Lay out your elements in 3D space. Drawings and images are automatically
scaled based on their relative position to the camera.
• Build motion, rotation and scaling effects through the 3D space.
• Build effects like color transformations, drop shadows and clipping masks.
Sceneplanning views and their tools will assist you as you animate your content.
13
Camera View
From the Camera View window, you can see how your scene looks from the view of
the camera. You can position elements in this window and design motion, rotation and
scaling changes using pegs.
Top View
The Top View displays elements from the top looking down. From this view, you can
judge the relative front-back and west-east position of elements.
14
Side View
From the Side View, you can see how the elements in your scene appear from the side
looking across. From this view, you can judge the relative front-back and north-south
position of elements.
Timeline
Use the Timeline to set up and visualize the organization and timing of your scene. You
can also import media in the Timeline. Unlike the Exposure Sheet, you can visualize
and modify peg, camera and effects elements in the Timeline.
15
Library
The Library stores all re-usable content. You can access individual objects from your
scene or you can load templates, which can contain multiple elements.
See Also
User Interface: Drawing and Importing Media on page 10
Animating Using Pegs on page 17
16
Animating Using Pegs

You create motion, scaling, skewing and rotation effects in Toon Boom Studio by
attaching content layers to elements called Pegs. Toon Boom Studio can interpolate or
motion tween all of the images in the attached elements to create animated effects that
unfold gradually.
Each element layer contains a set of drawings that

you can repeat as often as necessary to complete
your motion effect.
Plot the start and end frames of

a motion path on a peg.
Add a control point to the motion path

and drag it to change the motion
path’s shape.
The element follows

the motion path.
See Also
Toon Boom Studio on page 10
Step-by-Step: Creating in Toon Boom

Studio
Toon Boom Studio uses the power and logic of traditional animation production, yet
has a workflow flexible enough to support the creative processes involved in all types
of digital animation.
Creating and Gathering the Content

The first step in the animation process is to create and gather your content. You can
draw all of your character, props and backgrounds, or you can use templates, bitmaps
and other multimedia files.
17
To create and gather content, you perform the following tasks:
• Add element layers to your Exposure Sheet or Timeline.
• Draw the contents of your animation layers. Drawing tools help you create
vector images that are key to producing high-quality, small size, animation.
• Import images, like photos or image sequences from videos, into your
element layers.
• Import multimedia, such as complete Adobe Flash movies, Adobe Illustrator
and audio files. Toon Boom Studio provides a unique system of content
management that can help you re-use animation elements.
• Scan bitmap backgrounds or hand-drawn animations that you want to
vectorize.
Drawing tools help you
create vector images.
Use the Drawing

View window to You can think of the
create your vector Exposure Sheet as a
drawings. storyboard that allows
you to visualize the
contents of your scenes.
Use the Timeline to

visualize the organization
and timing of your contents.
See Also
Adding the Sound Track on page 19
18
Adding the Sound Track

You can use the Toon Boom Studio voice track analyzer to identify the lip positions
that you must draw to match the voice track in each frame. You can see the lip chart in
the Exposure Sheet or the Sound Element Editor.
The lip positions of this character

match the sound of the voice track.
You can use these images as a
reference while you draw your own
character’s lips to match the voice
track.
Combine this with the Sound Element Editor to fine tune the sound synchronization.
The sound editor gives

you precise sound
synchronization.
See Also
Inking and Painting Your Drawings on page 20
19
Inking and Painting Your Drawings

Completed line art can be filled with color. Toon Boom Studio provides a color palette
management system that simplifies the creation and organization of your project
colors.
With Toon Boom Studio you can:
• Create color palettes for each character.
• Create palettes for different versions of a character’s color palette (for
example, a day and night palette).
• Change all of the color swatches in a palette style.
• After you mix your project colors, you can easily ink and paint the line art
and zones with the painting tools. If you change the properties of a zone or a
line after you paint them, Toon Boom Studio updates all of the painted zones
and lines with the new properties of the color swatch. This saves you from
having to repaint your drawings when your palette changes.
Fill your drawings with color

using the color swatches.
See Also
Changing the Sequence and Timing of Drawings and Images on page 20
Changing the Sequence and Timing of Drawings and

Images
You can use the Exposure Sheet or Timeline to work on the organization and timing of
elements in your scene.
20
The Exposure Sheet and Timeline allow you to keep track of all the drawings and
element layers in your scene (characters, objects, backgrounds).
• In the Exposure Sheet, each row represents one frame in your animation. If
you look across a frame in your exposure sheet, you will see what drawings
or images appear together in one frame of your animation.
• In the Timeline, each column represents one frame in your animation.
Both windows also identify how long a drawing or image appears in your scene; this
is known as “exposure.” As you work out the motion of your characters, you may have
to adjust the exposure of drawings, or their order. You may also need to add drawings
to make a motion more fluid and convincing.
The Exposure Sheet and Timeline display the layers in the scene and their timing.
See Also
Sceneplanning and Animating Elements on page 22
21
Sceneplanning and Animating Elements

Use the 3D Sceneplanning views to lay out your elements and make them change over
time. With the Timeline window, you can see when elements start and end, and when
drawings and images change. You can use the Timeline window to add and manage
peg, camera and effects elements, as well as manage the timing of drawings and
images in your scene.
When animating, you can view your element layers from three different perspectives.
This allows you to see how elements work together through the scene.
Three different perspectives for

viewing element layers.
When animating, you can:

• Change the north/south and east/west position of element layers. You can
also change the front/back position of elements to create a sense of depth in
your scene.
• Change the rotation or size of element.
• Use pegs to move elements through a scene to create multiplane effects.
22
• Create camera effects, such as pans, trucks and zooms.
The element follows

the motion path
Toon Boom Studio can automatically interpolate all of the drawings in an element! The
quality of your images is preserved through all transformations thanks to vector
technology.
At any time during the process, you can perform quick tests to check your animation
or see it in real-time.
See Also
Exporting on page 23
Exporting
Now it’s time to export your scenes and produce a final movie.
You can export the final movie clip in one of the following formats:
• Adobe Flash format (SWF)
• QuickTime format (MOV)
• AVI
• DV stream
• Image sequence
23
In the Adobe Flash, QuickTime,

AV formats and DV stream, you
can launch the player and view
your exported movie as soon as
it is ready.
Toon Boom Studio follows the order of the scenes in your Scene Manager window and
exports each scene in sequence to create one seamless movie complete with animation,
movement effects, and sound.
Animating Cut-Out Style

Cut-out is a style of animation that is like puppetry, only the workshop and stage is
Toon Boom Studio.
Like a puppet, a cut-out character is made from many independent parts, such as
hands, arms, a head, legs and feet. In Toon Boom Studio, these parts are linked together
at the joints and are then animated using pegs, which are like the strings that move
puppets.
Like a puppet, this character is made up of many parts.

In this image, each part of the character is surrounded by a box.
In Toon Boom Studio, the parts are assembled and animated with
pegs, which are like the strings that animate a puppet.
24
Cut-out animation allows you to reduce the amount of drawings you do. Instead of re-
drawing your entire character each time it moves, you can isolate changes to specific
body parts - for example, the arm. Instead of redrawing the entire character when the
position of the arm changes, you create the arm in a separate layer and change only the
arm when it moves.
Instead of drawing a whole new drawing when the

character’s arm moves, you can just modify the parts of the
body that actually change.
Cut-out animation will reduce the amount of work you do. However, it does require
some planning and work before you begin animating.
Toon Boom Studio includes many features that make the cut-out animation process
simpler and more intuitive.
Drawing Cut-out Characters

• Build a model of your character as a reference. Ink and paint your character as
you would normally.
• Using the Cutter or Scissor tool, “cut out” all of the pieces of your character,
by creating a unique element for each component. Be sure to name your
elements so that they identify the character as well as its part.
The number of pieces you create from your character depends on its
complexity and the complexity of the animation you want to create.
For example, you may place all of these parts of your character in a different
element: hair, eyes, head, eyebrows, mouth, body, upper arm, forearm, hand,
hips, thigh, calf and foot.
• In each element, draw all the variations of your body part.
For example, you may create a number of drawings for the hand, such as a
fist or open palm, or the head from multiple angles.
25
Grouping Cut-out Components

• If you have many parts you still need to group them together. Certain parts
can be grouped together so that they will move together.
For example, the left hand, left forearm and left upper arm of a character are
grouped together. You can select the hand so it will rotate at the wrist, but
when you select the forearm, the hand will always move with it. In the same
way, you can select the upper arm, and the entire arm will move together.
Sceneplanning Tools and Cut-out Characters

• The Rotate tool allows you to position pivot points for all the joints. Pivot
points are the spot on which your joints, like the shoulder, elbow or wrist,
rotate.
Position the pivot point over the center of a

joint so that body parts rotate naturally.
In this hand and forearm, the forearm has been rounded so that
when the hand rotates on the joint, the line between the two parts
will continue.
• Animate your character using the Transform tool. Use the tool to animate
the selected part or parts of your character at a specific frame. Use the
Timeline window to select the frame where you begin and end
transformations.
26
In the Timeline, select the frame where you want to

add a keyframe then use the Transform tool to select
and animate the parts of your character.
Reusing Cut-out Assets

• You may want to create templates of your character and its parts and store
them in the Library for reuse in your current or future projects. The level of
reuse you use depends on your need. You may create templates of entire
characters, just their parts, animated sequences (like walk-cycles) or all three.
• Use the Cells tab in the Properties dialog box to select the drawing you want
to appear at each frame and the length of time it will appear on your screen.
Drag the slider to swap the current drawing with another one in the element.
See Also
Drawing Line Art on page 63
27
New and Improved Features in V3.5

Toon Boom Studio V3.5 empowers artists with improvements to animation
keyframing, asset reuse, lip synchronization and the user interface, so that you can
make better animations quicker. Version 3.5 significantly simplifies the creation of cut-
out animation.
User Interface
• Toon Boom Studio V3.5 displays a Welcome Screen to get started more
quickly. Use it to create a new project, open recent projects, open tutorials and
quickly link to Toon Boom Studio resources on the Web.
• The new dialog box, New Project, lets you enter the name and animation
properties when to create a new animation project.
• An improved Timeline interface allows you to view timeline track and layer
information more easily. New drawings are represented in the timeline by a
3D box and keyframe markers are more visible in Peg elements and Drawing
elements (see the new Animating features for an overview of the new peg
system).
• The Onion Skin includes the Show Outline on Onion Skin option to
represent next and previous drawings as outlines rather than filled shapes.
Turn on the onion skin on and off easily with the Turn Onion Skin On/Off
button in the Onion Skin toolbar.
• The Properties window includes an Edit Velocity button which opens the
element’s velocity information in the Function Editor.
• Snap changes to 15 degree increments by holding down the [Shift] key while
using the Select drawing tool or scene operation tool, the Edit Texture ,
Transform , Rotate or Motion tool.
• Undo and Redo buttons have been added to the toolbar.
Effects
• The new Drop Shadow effect allows you to add a shadow to a drawing or a
group of drawings and customize its look.
• The Color Transform effect includes the option to Flatten the content of a
Color Transform effect layer with many elements with different front-back
positions.
Sceneplanning Tools
• The Select tool (activated from the Sceneplanning Tools menu and the
Scene Operation toolbar), in addition to static NS, EW and FB position values
28
of a Drawing or Image element, now sets static rotation, scale and skew
values.
• The Rotate , Scale , and Skew tools are used exclusively to set
dynamic changes of elements.
Drawing
• Use the Convert Line to Brush feature to convert centerline shapes to contour
shapes.
• Contour Editor improvements allow more flexible and intuitive methods
to add points, move handles, lines and points.
Inking and Painting
• Pen properties for the Eraser can be defined differently than the other
drawing tools.
• When using the Edit Texture tool, texture and gradient properties can be
copied and pasted from one painted zone to another.
• Color palettes from other animation projects can be imported into an
animation scene.
• Color palettes can be exported by selecting one, some or all palettes in an
animation project.
Animating
• Drawing and Image elements have a built-in peg, to animate changes in
motion, rotation, scale and skew.
• Peg elements are empty by default, and keyframes can be added at any point.
The first keyframe’s values are applied to the frames before it. The last
keyframe’s values are applied to the frames after it.
Rendering
• OpenGL anti-aliasing is now supported on both Windows and Mac OS X
• Toon Boom Studio can be minimized during rendering process.
Import
• Use the Import File command to create a new element and import an image,
drawing, Flash or sound file into it.
• An animation project’s color palettes can be imported from a TBCP file.
Export
• The Export Movie dialog box includes an Options button which opens a
Settings dialog box specific to the export format you have selected.
29
• The new Export Drawing to PDF feature allows you to create a PDF file of the
drawing at the current frame, allowing you another way to share your work
or work with it in other applications, such as Adobe Illustrator.
• An animation project’s color palettes can be exported to a TBCP file.
See Also
Animating Cut-Out Style on page 24
About the Documentation

Toon Boom Studio V3.5 documentation applies to both the Windows and Mac OS X
editions of the software. The application comes with the following types of
documentation:
• Toon Boom Studio Installation and Getting Started Guide, which includes
installation instructions, also provides a basic overview of Toon Boom Studio.
• Toon Boom Studio User Guide expands on the information in the Getting
Started Guide, allowing the user to learn more about specific aspects of the
application. Use this guide to understand how you can use Toon Boom
Studio’s wide variety of drawing, ink and paint, import, sound,
sceneplanning, animating, camera, effects, exposure sheet, template and
export tools.
• Online Help, which you can open by pressing [F1] (Windows) or
[Command] + [?] (MacOS) from within the application, or by selecting
Help > Toon Boom Studio Help. The Online Help is a comprehensive
document that includes the Toon Boom Studio User Guide and information
on all the tasks you can perform with the application and definitions of
various components of Toon Boom Studio. The online help also includes a
tutorial to familiarize you with the application, a full-text search mechanism,
which you can use to locate important information, as well as hyper-linked
related topics and cross-references.
• Context-Sensitive Help. The context-sensitive help provides short definitions
of various interface features. To get a description of a menu command or
toolbar button, select Help > What’s This and click the item you want a
description of. A pop-up window opens with a description of the item you
clicked. You can click anywhere to close the pop-up window. On Windows,
you can also right-click an item and select What’s This from the pop-up
menu.
• Additional tutorials for Toon Boom Studio are available on the Web via the
Toon Boom Studio website. If Toon Boom Studio is open, select Help > Toon
Boom on the Web to open your default Web browser at the Toon Boom
website.
30
See Also
Toon Boom Studio on page 10
Document Conventions on page 31
Document Conventions
• Selecting Menu Commands
When you need to select a command from a menu, the documentation lists
what you need to select in the following order: Menu name > Command.
For example, if you want to select the Open command from the File menu,
the instruction would read as File > Open.
If there is a series of sub-menus, they will appear in the order in which you
would need to open them. For example, if you needed to select Hide Grid
from the Grid sub-menu in the View menu, the instruction would read as
View > Grid > Hide Grid.
• Throughout the Toon Boom Studio documentation, the following terms
describe which mouse button to use to perform an action:
Term Action
Press [A] Press the A button displayed on your keyboard. Square

brackets will always surround the name of a keyboard
button.
Click Click the left mouse button.
Right-click Click the right mouse button.
Double-click Click the specified mouse button twice rapidly without

moving the mouse.
[Shift]-click Hold down the [Shift] key and simultaneously click the
specified mouse button.
[Ctrl]-click Hold down the [Ctrl] key and simultaneously click the
specified mouse button.
Drag Click the object and hold down the mouse button while
moving the mouse.
31
32
Chapter 1
Studio Basics
This chapter describes how to start a new animation in Toon Boom Studio, how
to work with scenes and how to set up your windows, toolbars and other
preferences.
• Launching Toon Boom Studio on page 34
• Starting Your Animation Project on page 36
• Saving Animation Projects on page 40
• Setting the Animation Frame Rate and Camera Size on page 42
• Adding Scenes to a Movie on page 45
• Setting up Your Studio Session on page 50
Launching Toon Boom Studio

To get started, you need to start the Toon Boom Studio application and open a project.
You have three main types of tasks you can do after you launch Toon Boom Studio,
each of these are explained in the following sections.
• Creating A New Project on page 36
• Opening An Existing Project on page 37
• Opening Tutorials on page 38
• Accessing Web Resources on page 39
To launch Toon Boom Studio:

1. Do one of the following:
• Double-click the Toon Boom Studio icon.

• Windows users can select Start > Programs >Toon Boom Animation > Toon
Boom Studio V3.5.
• Mac OS X users can select Applications > Toon Boom Studio > Toon Boom
Studio V3.5
Toon Boom Studio opens. The menu bar and the main toolbar are displayed.
When you first launch Toon Boom Studio, the welcome screen appears. The welcome
screen helps you to:
• Enter a name for your new animation
• Select preset animation properties
• Set manual animation properties
• Open recent files
• Browse to open a project
• Open tutorials online or locally on a hard drive
• Access Web resources:
D TBS Technical Support Page
D TBS Product Page
D e-Learning Section
D TBS User forum
34
Chapter 1: Studio Basics
Use this
section to
open recent
projects.
You can also
Create a new click the
animation Browse link
project in this to select an
section, which animation in
includes the your file
features in the system.
New Project
dialog box.
Use this
section to
access
tutorials.
Quick links to
Toon Boom
Studio on the
Web
You can choose whether or not you want this screen to appear the next time you launch
Toon Boom Studio. If you do not want to display it when you launch the application,
select Do Not Show This Window at Startup option at the bottom of the welcome
screen.
You can easily switch a disabled welcome screen back on so it will appear next time
you start up the application.
To reactivate the welcome screen:

1. Select Toon Boom Studio Edit > Preferences. The Preferences window opens.
2. Click the General Tab.
3. Select Show Start Page from the At Startup drop-list.
4. Click OK. The welcome screen will display the next time you launch Toon Boom
Studio.
35
Starting Your Animation Project

Once you have launched Toon Boom Studio you can create a new animation project or
open an existing one.
• Creating A New Project on page 36
• Opening An Existing Project on page 37
Before you begin a project or to refresh your knowledge of Toon Boom Studio, you can
also launch the application to access additional resources.
• Opening Tutorials on page 38
• Accessing Web Resources on page 39
Creating A New Project

When you create a new project, you will specify the location where you want to store
the animation components. You will also be able to specify animation properties, such
as the aspect ratio and frames per second (these can be changed later).
To create a new animation project:

• Launch the program to display the welcome screen.
• In the menu bar, select File > New.
The New Project dialog box opens. If you are using the welcome screen, the same
properties are in the upper left section.
Use this dialog box to name your animation project, and select its animation
properties.
2. Type in the Name of the project.
36
3. You can select a frame rate and camera size from the Format drop-list. To use a
new one, select Custom from the list and enter a new frame rate (in frames per
second) and camera size (in pixels).
4. Click on the Create button when you are done. The new project is created and
placed in the directory you selected.
The Toon Boom Studio window opens the default layout based on your chosen
animation properties. You can now start your production.
Other ways to open the New Project dialog box:

• In the File Toolbar, click the New button.
• Mac OS X users can use the [Command] + [N] shortcut.
• Windows users can use the [Ctrl] + [N] shortcut.
To start a new project from the beginning, choose this option.
When you begin a new project there are certain criteria which you must first set up,
these criteria provide the basic setup for the new project.
If you choose to start a new project follow these steps to begin:
1. Click in the Name text box in the new project area of the Start Page.
2. Enter an name for the new project.
3. Select the Animation Properties that best suit your final production output.
4. Click on Create. The start page closes and the application displays the default
layout relative to your chosen Animation Properties. You can now start your
production.
See Also
Setting the Animation Frame Rate and Camera Size on page 42
Opening An Existing Project

If you want, you can continue working on a previously created animation project by
opening it.
If you have another project open, you will be prompted to save it, and it will close after
you confirm your choice. A saved project is added to the recent projects list so you can
easily choose it again (See Opening a recently used project on page 38 ).
To open an existing animation project:

37
• Launch the program to display the welcome screen. Click the Browse link.
• In the menu bar, click on File > Open.
The Open dialog box appears.
2. Browse to the folder where your project is located, select the file or bundle with
the TBP or TBPD format and click the Open button to open it. The project opens
in the Toon Boom Studio window.
Other ways to open the Open dialog box:
• In the File Toolbar, click the Open button.

• Mac OS X users can use the [Command] + [O] shortcut.
• Windows users can use the [Ctrl] + [O] shortcut.
Opening a recently used project

A recently saved project is added to the recent projects list so you can easily choose it
again.
To open a recently used animation project:

• Launch the program to display the welcome screen.
• In the menu bar, click on File > Open Recent.
A list of filenames of recent animation projects is listed in the Open Recent
submenu. If you are using the welcome screen, the projects are listed in the Open
Recent section located in the upper right part of the window.
2. Select the filename of the animation project you want to open from the list of
recent animation projects.
Opening Tutorials
If you choose to open the tutorials and learn how to use the different and producers
You can select one of the tutorials displayed in the tutorials list. If you want to open
tutorials that you have downloaded onto your computer, you can browse using the
More Tutorials folder to take you to their location.
38
Accessing Web Resources

The welcome screen’s Web links feature allows you dynamic access to Toon Boom
Studio related information on the Web. Using the Internet, these direct links rapidly
connect you to information and resources that will enhance your Toon Boom Studio
experience.
Button Link
TBS Technical Support Web Page

Technical support is now at your fingertips. Select your support package and
link directly to the Toon Boom Studio support team.
TBS Product Web Page

Read the product overview, testimonials, user stories and learn about useful
plug-ins.
eLearning Web Page

Access Toon Boom’s Animation Essentials Web page, where you can find the
Workout Series, tutorials, templates, documentation, articles and other
eLearning materials.
TBS User Forum

Connect with other registered members in the TBS user group, where you can
find useful information posted by TBS users.
39
Saving Animation Projects

When you are ready to build your animated production, you must create an animation
project folder. It contains all of the drawings, bitmaps, sounds and effects in your
animation, as well as all of the timing, layout and motion changes you build.
When you create your project, the name you select becomes the name of your project
folder and the Toon Boom Studio project file. Inside your project folder are subfolders
for:
• Sound files
• Local templates
• Scenes
A scene folder contains folders for vector drawings and bitmap graphics.
On the Mac, the animation project folder appears as a single file. If you show
extensions, the extension of this file is .tbdp. To see the contents of the Toon Boom
Project Directory, [Control]-click the file and select Show Package Contents.
To save your changes to the project:

• Select File > Save. If the project has never been saved, the Save As dialog box
appears, which you can use to select the name and location of your project.
To save the animation project with another name or in another location:

1. Select File > Save As. The Save As dialog box opens.
In Mac OS X, enter the new
name in the Save As field
and select the location using
the Where drop-list.
40
In Windows,
enter the new
name in the
File Name field
and select the
location using
the Save In
drop-list and
file browser.
2. Type the new name of the animation project.

3. Select a location to save the animation project.
4. Click Save to save it with a new name or location.
See Also
Adding Scenes to a Movie on page 45
Changing the Background Color of a Scene on page 46
41
Setting the Animation Frame Rate

and Camera Size
The frame rate and camera size you set for your project determines how your
animation is rendered during export and playback.
• The frame rate sets the speed at which the movie will play back. The higher
you set the frame rate, the faster your animation will play.
By default, the frame rate is set to 12 frames per second.
• The camera size defines the resolution of your final animation. Toon Boom
Studio uses the camera you define to render the final movie. The larger the
camera resolution, the larger the scene space you have.
Although you can change the size of your movie at any time, you must set the frame
rate before you import any sound.
If you change the frame rate after you add your sound elements, you run the risk of
sound effects that are not synchronized with the animation.
To define the frame rate and size of your movie:

1. Select File > Animation Properties. The Animation Properties dialog box opens
2. Type the frame rate at which you want to play the rendered movie in the Frame
Rate field. The following frame rates are commonly used:
• 1, 2, 12, 24, and 30 frames per second.
3. Type the size of the final movie in the Camera Size fields.
• Left field: the width of the movie.
• Right field: the height of the movie.
4. Click OK.
42
Selecting Preset Animation Properties

Preset formats are listed by name when creating a new animation project.
This table shows the animation properties which are available using Toon Boom
Studio. You can also set the properties manually.
Format Camera Real Frame Frame Rate Preferred Output

Size (pixels) Size (pixels) (fps)
Web Use
Small Web Animation 160 x 120 160 x 120 12 QuickTime or Flash
Medium Web Animation 320 x 240 320 x 240 12 QuickTime or Flash
Large Web Animation 480 x 360 480 x 360 12 QuickTime or Flash
iPod and PodCasting 320 x 240 320 x 240 12 QuickTime or Flash
Windows Mobile Full Screen 240 x 320 240 x 320 12 Flash
Windows Mobile Browser 240 x 268 240 x 268 12 Flash
PC Video
VGA 640 x 480 640 x 480 24 QuickTime or Flash
SGA 800 x 600 800 x 600 24 QuickTime or Flash
XVGA 1024 x 768 1024 x 768 24 QuickTime or Flash
SXGA 1280 x 1024 1280 x 1024 24 QuickTime or Flash
UXGA 1600 x 1200 1600 x 1200 24 QuickTime or Flash
DVD and Broadcasting

(note the difference between the camera size and the size of the frame shown on screen).
DV NTSC 750 x 540 720 x 480 29.97 DV/DVCPRO

NTSC
DV NTSC Anamorphic 853 x 480 720 x 480 29.97 DV/DVCPRO

NTSC
DV PAL 768 x 576 720 x 576 25 DV/DVCPRO PAL
DV PAL Anamorphic 1024 x 576 720 x 576 25 DV/DVCPRO PAL
43
Format Camera Real Frame Frame Rate Preferred Output

Size (pixels) Size (pixels) (fps)
HDTV monitors:
HDTV 720 24p 1280 x 720 1280 x 720 24 QuickTime h.264
Film
2K Film 4:3 2048 x 1536 24
Custom
See Also
Creating A New Project on page 36
Camera Effects with Toon Boom Studio on page 282
Real-Time Playback on page 392
Exporting Your Movie on page 394
44
Adding Scenes to a Movie

You can add scenes to your animation project to organize and manage the contents of
your movie scenes:
The Scene Manager window provides access to all of the scenes in your animation
project. You can use this window to show or hide the scenes that you want to render,
as well as change the order of the scenes in your movie.
When you add scenes to your movie, Toon Boom Studio adds a scene folder to your
animation project.
The arrows next to the

scene’s name in the list
indicates that this is the
active scene.
All scenes in an animation project share the following:

• Palettes, palette styles, and swatches
• Pen styles
• Templates
• Sounds
• Exposure Sheet/Timeline window colors
• Default UI colors
If you make changes to any of these traits, Toon Boom Studio updates them in all the
scenes in your animation project. This allows you to maintain a consistent look
throughout your movie.
To add scenes to your movie:

1. Select Window > Show Scene Manager to display the Scene Manager window.
2. Click Add Scene to create a new scene. By default, Toon Boom Studio assigns a
name to each new scene that you can change later.
A new scene appears in the Scene Manager window and an empty exposure sheet
or timeline appears in the Toon Boom Studio window.
45
See Also
Reordering Scenes on page 47
Renaming Scenes on page 47
Deleting Scenes on page 49
Showing/Hiding Scenes on page 48
Changing the Background Color of a Scene

The background color of all scenes is white by default. You can change the background
color of each scene in your movie to suit the context of the action.
To change the background color of a scene:

1. Select the scene in the Scene Manager window.
2. Click the Contextual Menu button and select Properties.
3. Click the Background Color square. The Color dialog box opens.
4. Select a color for the scene background or create your own by clicking Define
Custom Colors.
5. Click OK when you are done and Toon Boom Studio will update the scene with
the new background color.
You can show/hide the scene background color in the Drawing View window or in the
Camera View window.
To show or hide the scene background color in the Drawing View or Camera View
windows:
• Select View > Show Scene Background Color.
D When this option is activated, the scene background color will appear in
the Camera View and Drawing View windows.
D When this option is not activated, the background color of these windows
is determined by the Drawing/Camera setting on the Interface tab of the
Preferences dialog box.
46
See Also
Changing the Background Color of the Drawing and Camera View Windows on
page 53
Changing the Color of an Element on page 327
Changing the Timeline Track Color on page 330
Reordering Scenes
When you play back or export an entire animation project with multiple scenes, Toon
Boom Studio exports the scenes in the order in which they appear in the Scene
Manager window. If you want to change the playback order of the scenes, you must
resort them in the Scene Manager window.
To change the order of scenes in the Scene Manager window:

1. Select the scene you want to move in the Scene Manager window.
2. Drag it to its new position in the Scene Manager window.
A grey bar appears between the scenes to indicate where you can drop the
selected scene.
The new order of the scene will also appear in the Scene Manager pop-up menu.
See Also
Renaming Scenes
When you start a new project, you always begin with one scene. By default, this scene
is called Scene-1, and every scene you create after that gets a sequentially numbered
default name (Scene-2, Scene-3, and so on).
At any time, you can rename scenes with more descriptive names that more fully
reflect the content.
To rename a scene:
1. Select the scene in the Scene Manager window.
2. Click the Contextual Menu button and select Properties.

The Scene Properties dialog box opens.
47
3. Type the new name for the scene in the Scene Name field and click OK. You
cannot give two scenes the same name.
The new scene’s name appears in the Scene Manager window. When you select a
scene from the Scene button in the Exposure Sheet window, the customized names
of your scenes also appear.
See Also
Reordering Scenes on page 47
Showing/Hiding Scenes
When you are working on a production that has many scenes, you may not want to
include them all in the rendered playback or in the export. Perhaps some of those
scenes were just “working scenes” in which you were saving some rough animation.
You can use the Show/Hide checkboxes next to scene names in the Scene Manager
window to hide scenes during the rendering process.
To show/hide scenes in your animation:

• Click the Show/Hide checkbox next to the scene name in the Scene Manager
window.
When the Show/Hide checkbox next to a scene
name is empty, the scene will not appear in
rendered animation.
See Also
Playback and Rendering on page 389
48
Deleting Scenes
As you work on your animation project, you may want to remove old scenes from your
project before you produce your final output.
For example, you could have a few test scenes where you wanted to try certain effects,
but when you are ready to record your final movie, you’ll want to remove these scenes
from the animation project.
To delete a scene:
• Click Delete in the Scene Manager window. Toon Boom Studio deletes
the scene folder and all its related animation files from your system.
See Also
Adding Scenes to a Movie on page 45
49
Setting up Your Studio Session

Toon Boom Studio is designed to be flexible enough to adapt to your computer setup
as well as your personal flair, allowing you to customize your workspace.
See Also
Saving and Loading Window Layouts on page 50
Assigning Keyboard Shortcuts on page 55
Selecting Units of Measure on page 57
Configuring Video Card Display Options on page 58
Defining the Default Tension, Continuity and Bias Values on page 264
Changing the Default Colors of Elements on page 328
Defining the Author and Copyright of a Template on page 376
page 53
Saving and Loading Window Layouts

With Toon Boom Studio, you can select windows you want to open based on the tasks
you are performing, position them to suit your working style and save them so that
you can reload them later.
For example, you can create a layout for when you are drawing, that includes the
Drawing View and Exposure Sheet, and another for when you are animating that
includes the Camera View, Side View, Timeline and Function Editor. Then switch
between the two layouts depending on the tasks you are preforming.
Here’s an example of a layout for

drawing tasks.
50
Here’s a layout for animating

tasks.
To create a window layout:

1. Open the windows you want to display and position them to support your
workflow.
You can select the windows from the Window menu. You can also open the
Drawing, Camera, Top or Side Views in the same windows.
Use these buttons to display the

Drawing, Camera, Top or Side
Views in the window.
2. Open toolbars you want to use.

3. To save your layout, select Window > Save Layout and select one of the three
user layouts.
51
4. A dialog box opens that you can use to change the name of the layout you are
creating. Choose a name that helps you identify this layout from the other layouts
you can make and click OK.
5. To open and reposition windows and toolbars based on a layout, select a layout
from the Window > Load Layout menu.
See Also
Customizing Toolbars on MacOS on page 52
page 53
Customizing Toolbars on MacOS

On the Mac, you can customize toolbars to display buttons that access commands that
you use most frequently.
To customize toolbars:
1. Select View > Customize Toolbar. A window opens that displays all of the
buttons available for the window you are currently working in.
2. Drag the buttons you want to the toolbar in the current window and click Done
when you are finished making your changes.
See Also
Setting up Your Studio Session on page 50
52
Displaying Toolbars on Windows

By default, Toon Boom Studio displays specific toolbars in the main window, but you
can select the toolbars to display in your Toon Boom Studio session. You can then drag
these toolbars to any position in your Toon Boom Studio window.
To select the toolbars you want to display:

• Select the menus you want to display from the View > Toolbars menu. A
checkmark appears next to the toolbars that will display.
You have the following choices:
D Main: This toolbar allows you to start, open, or save animation projects,
cut, copy, and paste content, and access the online help.
D Interactive Playback: This toolbar allows you to control the playback of
your scene.
D Grid Control: This toolbar allows you to display grids in the Drawing
View window.
D Onion Skin: This toolbar allows you to view the previous or next
drawings in a sequence.
D Peg: This toolbar allows you to display/hide details about the peg path.
D Scene View: This toolbar allows you to change what you see in the View
windows.
See Also
Changing the Background Color of the

Drawing and Camera View Windows
You can set the background color for the Drawing View and Camera View windows
to improve your ability to work on the drawing objects and layout of your scene. The
color you choose for the background is not exported as the background color of the
scene.
To change the background color of the Drawing View and Camera View windows:
1. Open the Preferences dialog box.
• Select Toon Boom Studio > Preferences on MacOS.
• Select Edit > Preferences on Windows.
The Preferences dialog box opens.
53
2. Click the Interface tab.
3. In the Window Background Colors panel, click the Drawing/Camera color

square. The Select color dialog box opens.
Which color selector you see depends on which operating system you use.
4. Create a color using the options in the dialog box and close the dialog box when
you are done.
5. Click OK in the Interface tab and Toon Boom Studio will update the default
background color of the windows.
54
6. To see the color you select in those windows, you must select the View > Hide
Scene Background Color option.
See Also
Assigning Keyboard Shortcuts

When you are working on your Toon Boom Studio animation, there are many
commands that you can access using either toolbar buttons or menu commands.
You can also access many of these commands using keyboard shortcuts. Many of these
shortcuts appear next to the command in the menus.
When you assign a keyboard

shortcut to a command, its
keyboard combination
appears next to the command
in the menu.
You can create customized keyboard shortcuts for commands that do not have default
shortcuts, such as those that are only accessible from contextual menus. You can also
edit the default keyboard shortcuts assigned to commands to suit your particular
working style.
To assign a command to a keyboard combination:

2. Click the Shortcuts tab.
55
3. Select the type of command you want to assign from the Category drop-list.
The contents of the Commands list changes depending on what you select from
the Category drop-list.
4. Select the command you want to assign from the Commands list.
A description of the selected command appears in the Description panel. If the
command you select already has a keyboard shortcut, the keyboard combination
appears in the Current Key field.
5. Click the Click and press new key button.
6. Press the keys you want to assign to the command. The buttons you press appear
in the Current Key field. If the shortcut keys are already used for another
command, that command appears in the Currently assigned to panel.
7. To reset all the keyboard shortcuts to their original shipped settings, click Reset
All.
See Also
56
Selecting Units of Measure

As you work on your scene objects, you can change their position or how they appear
in your scene. To be able to measure the changes in size, rotation, or position, you need
to use a system of measurement to make accurate modifications.
To select the measurement unit you want to use in your Toon Boom Studio session:
2. Select the Sceneplanning tab.
3. Select the unit of measure from the Coordinate Units drop-list. You have the
following choices:
• centimeters
• inches
• fields: the traditional animation industry standard for the size of a film
camera (0.5" x 0.375" at a ratio of 4:3).
By default, Toon Boom Studio uses the traditional field system (measured by North/
South/East/West) to measure the distance, position, and size of your elements.
4. Choose from your other Sceneplanning options:
57
• Select the Show Units option to turn on or off the display of unit values in
Sceneplanning fields.
• Select the Use Box Highlighting option to display selections in a bounding
box. When disabled, selected elements appear faded.
• Select the Create Linear Spline option to force all new peg functions (motion,
rotation and scaling) you create to have no acceleration. New peg functions
will have a linear velocity instead. When you de-select this option, motion
paths are created with a default ease-in/ease-out velocity.
• Select the Create Constant Keyframes option to force all new keyframes with
constant rather than tweened (interpolated) segments.
• Select the Single Cell Selection option to select a single cell when you click
on a layer track in the Timeline View, instead of an entire track.
5. Click OK when done or select another tab.
See Also
Configuring Video Card Display Options

If you are having problems with the display of Toon Boom Studio windows or tools,
you can use the options on the Display tab of the Preferences dialog box to set
rendering options that will work with your video card.
To configure your display settings:

2. Click the Display tab, select your options, and click OK to close the dialog box.
58
• Renderer: By default Toon Boom Studio is set to use Quartz 2D in MacOS, or

Direct 3D in Windows, for rendering images in the View windows, but
OpenGL can also be selected.
D Disable Hardware Acceleration: select this option if you are having
problems with your display that you suspect might be related to features
of your video card.
D Disable Overlay: select this option if the drawing tools are responding
very slowly.
• Numerous Rendering Options are available including OpenGL Full Scene
Anti-aliasing.
59
60
Chapter 2
Drawing
This chapter explains how to use the tools in Toon Boom Studio to create your
own animated drawings.
This chapter includes the following topics:
• Creating and Navigating Drawings and Drawing Layers on page 62
• Drawing Line Art on page 63
• Working With Text on page 72
• Working with Selections on page 78
• Optimizing Drawing Objects for the Web on page 88
• Cutting and Erasing Drawing Objects on page 96
• Modifying the Shape of Vector Lines on page 100
• Setting Up Your Pens on page 107
• Setting Up Your Drawing Space on page 110
Creating and Navigating Drawings

and Drawing Layers
To draw, you must select a frame in a drawing element layer. By default, there is a
drawing element and frame selected as soon as you start Toon Boom Studio so that you
can draw right away.
As soon as you draw, Toon Boom Studio labels the selected frame with the new
drawing name, which is a number by default.
You can create new drawing elements to organize your character, their parts, and
props into separate layers. There are a number of shortcuts you can use to go to
previous and next elements, frames and drawings in the Exposure Sheet or Timeline
windows.
To create drawing layers, do one of the following:

• Select Element > Add > Drawing.
• Click the Drawing button at the top of the Exposure Sheet window.
• Clicking the Add button in the Timeline window and use the New
Elements dialog box to create a drawing element.
• Right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) in an empty area in the left
frame of the Timeline window and select New > Drawing.
As you add more element layers, you can use the keyboard shortcuts to go to previous
and next elements in the exposure sheet column or timeline track.
To navigate elements:
• Press [F] to go to the next element.
• Press [Shift]+[F] to go to the next element displayed in the Exposure Sheet.
• Press [D] to go to the previous element.
• Press [Shift]+[D] to go to the previous element displayed in the Exposure
Sheet.
As soon as you add a drawing element, the first frame in the element is selected and
you can draw right away. You can use keyboard shortcuts to go to the next or previous
frame so that you can draw there.
To navigate frames:
• Press [S] to go to the next frame.
• Press [A] to go to the previous frame.
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Chapter 2: Drawing
As you add more drawings, you may want to go to the previous or next drawing,
whether it is on the adjacent frame or 10 frames away.
To navigate drawings:
• Press [Shift] + [S] to go to the next drawing.
• Press [Shift] + [A] to go to the previous frame.
For more information on working with element layers and frames, see “Organizing
Elements and Timing” on page 317.
See Also
Exposure Sheet and Timeline Windows on page 318
Sequencing and Timing Drawings and Images on page 345
Adding Many Elements to a Scene on page 337
Changing the Layering Order of Elements on page 338
Renaming Elements on page 341
Labelling Cells in the Exposure Sheet on page 346
Drawing Line Art

Lines (also called line art) are the basis for all shapes that you draw with Toon Boom
Studio vector drawing tools. As lines are the basis of all shapes, points are the basis of
all lines.
All lines are composed of points. It

takes at least two points to define a
line.
Points can run down the center of a line, creating what is called a centerline. Or, points
can run around the outside of a shape, creating a line called a contour.
• The Line , Polyline , Pencil , Rectangle and Ellipse tools create

centerline shapes of a set width.
63
A straight line drawn with the A line drawn with the Pencil tool is
Line tool has a point at defined by a series of
either end. centerline points.
• The Brush tool creates variable-width strokes that respond to the pressure
you apply with a digital pen and graphic tablet. The points that compose a
brush stroke surround a zone that is filled with color, creating a contour.
A brush stroke or a painted shape is

surrounded by a collection of points.
The outline of the brush stroke or
painted fill is called a Contour.
The tool you select depends on the type of effect you want to create as well as
considerations for the file size of your final animation.
• When you draw your characters, you may want to wait to draw the lip
positions until after you import the sound track.
Toon Boom Studio features a powerful lip-sync generator. With this tool,
you can generate a lip chart that identifies the animation phoneme that
matches each frame. You can use the lip chart as a reference while you draw
the lip positions of your characters.
• The features of Sceneplanning Tools may change how you approach
drawing with Drawing Tools.
With Sceneplanning Tools, you can create motion, scale and rotation
changes over time. Therefore, you do not have to animate these changes in
your drawing objects with Drawing Tools.
See Also
Drawing in the Drawing or Camera View on page 65
Drawing Straight Lines, Ellipses and Rectangles on page 66
Lip Synching on page 192
Modifying the Shape of Vector Lines on page 100
Optimizing Drawing Objects for the Web on page 88
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Chapter 2: Drawing
Drawing in the Drawing or Camera View

When you first start drawing your characters and props, you should work in the
Drawing View using the drawing tools.
After everything is drawn, you can move to the Sceneplanning view windows to lay
out and animate your characters in 3D space.
Sometimes drawings might require retouching or editing after you set up your
animation in the Sceneplanning views. Then, you can use the drawing tools to retouch
or create new drawings in the Camera View window.
Because you can see all of the drawings in a frame in their relative positions in the 3D
sceneplanning space, “drawing in sceneplanning” will help you retouch and create
drawings more easily and accurately.
You can use onion skin, display the drawing grid and rotate the Camera View just like
you can the Drawing View.
65
See Also
Creating and Navigating Drawings and Drawing Layers on page 62
Animating on page 221
Laying Out Elements in 3D Space on page 199
Displaying the Drawing Grid on page 111
Rotating the Drawing Space on page 113
Onion Skin: Displaying the Next and Previous Drawings on page 115
Drawing Straight Lines, Ellipses and

Rectangles
The drawing tools in Toon Boom Studio resemble standard drawing tools used in
many graphic programs, including a few extras made especially for animators. You
can use your mouse or graphic tablet to draw your shapes.
In the Drawing Tools toolbar, you can select
the drawing tool you want to use from the
pop-up menu by clicking on the arrow next to
the drawing tool button.
The active drawing tool appears in the
second button of the Drawing Tools toolbar.
You can press [2] to cycle through the tools
in the drawing pop-up menu.
To draw straight lines, ellipses and rectangles:

1. Select the tool you want to use from the Tools > Drawing Tools menu or the
Drawing Tools toolbar. You have the following choices:
• Line tool: draws straight lines. To draw at 15 degree angles, press [Shift].
• Rectangle tool: draws rectangular or square shapes. To draw a square,
press [Shift] as you drag the Rectangle tool.
• Ellipse tool: draws round shapes. To draw a circle, press [Shift] as you
drag the Ellipse tool.
2. Select Window > Properties to display the Properties window.
3. Select a pen style from the Pen tab. The width of your line is based on the
Maximum Size value of the pen you select.
4. Select a solid color swatch from the Color Palette tab. You cannot use a gradient
or texture color swatch.
5. Drag the tool in the Drawing View window until you have the shape you want.
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Chapter 2: Drawing
• With the Rectangle and Ellipse tool, press [Alt] (Windows) or [Option]
(MacOS) to draw from the center.
• With the Line tool, press [Alt] (Windows) or [Option] (MacOS) to draw from
the previous point.
• Press [Ctrl] (Windows) or [Command] (MacOS) to select the object you just
drew and move, resize, or rotate it.
See Also
Drawing with the Polyline Tool on page 67
Working with Selections on page 78
Setting Up Your Pens on page 107
Drawing with the Polyline Tool

The Polyline tool is great for drawing vector shapes that consist of many
continuous points that form different angles. As you draw with the Polyline tool, you
can be sure to close your line art so that you can fill it with color without having to
worry about gap closing.
With the Polyline tool, you can draw

shapes one point at a time, forming the
shape as you go.
To draw a shape with the Polyline tool:

1. From the Tools > Drawing Tools menu or Drawing Tools toolbar, select the
Polyline tool.
2. Select a pen style from the Pen tab in the Properties window. The width of your
line is based on the Maximum Size value of the pen you select.
or texture color swatch to draw with the Polyline tool.
4. Click to add points to the line you draw.
5. After you add a point, keep the mouse button pressed, and shape the line using
the handles.
67
• Press [Shift] to move the handles at 15 degree increments.

• Press [Alt] (Windows) or [Command] (MacOS) to detach the motion of one
handle from the other.
6. To close a shape so that there are no gaps:
• Place your pointer over a point and click. An “o” appears when you are
adding a point that will close a shape.
• Place your pointer over any location on the shape you are drawing and click.
A plus [+] sign when your pointer is over a spot that Toon Boom Studio can
use to create a closed shape.
7. To remove a point on the line, press [Shift] and click the point. Toon Boom Studio
recalculates the shape with the point removed. When over a point that you can
delete a minus [-] sign appears.
See Also
Protecting Drawings on page 362
Drawing Brush Strokes

When you draw with the Brush tool and a graphic tablet and pen, you can enjoy the
effect of drawing as if you are working with pen and paper and the width of your
stroke can change depending on the amount of pressure you apply.
Although strokes created by the Brush tool are more natural looking, they require
more memory to store than shapes drawn with the centerline tools Ellipse, Rectangle,
Pencil and Polyline.
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Chapter 2: Drawing
See how the line in the drawing

varies just slightly throughout
this drawing?
The variable-width brush stroke
creates a neat look in your
drawings.
To draw a brush stroke:

1. From the Tools > Drawing Tools > menu or Drawing Tools toolbar, select the
Brush tool.
2. Select a pen style from the Pen tab in the Properties window.
If you are using a graphic tablet and pen, the width of the line you draw depends
on the pressure you apply and the Minimum and Maximum Size settings on the
Pen tab.
3. Select a color for your line art from the swatches in Color Palette tab. You can
select either a solid, gradient or texture swatch when you use the Brush tool.
4. Draw your line using your mouse or pen and graphic tablet.
You can force Toon Boom Studio to connect all overlapping shapes that you draw.
• Select Tools > Draw Top Layer. When this command is active, Toon Boom
Studio creates one object out of overlapping lines.
As you draw with the Brush tool, the Draw Top Layer command will create one
shape out of numerous lines you may create as you draw with a graphic tablet and
pen.
69
See Also
Drawing Pencil Lines

You can use the Pencil tool to draw as you would with an ordinary pencil. The
Pencil tool creates a single-width centerline shape, unlike the Brush tool, which
creates a contour shape.
To draw pencil lines:

Pencil tool.
2. Select a pen style from the Pen tab in the Properties window. The width of your
line is based on the Maximum Size value of the pen you select.
color swatch to draw a pencil line.
4. Draw your line using your mouse or graphic tablet pen.
See Also
Drawing Brush Strokes on page 68
Drawing Brush Strokes on page 68
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Chapter 2: Drawing
Converting Centerline Shapes to Brush

Strokes
You can convert centerline shapes, such as those you create with the Pencil, Ellipse,
Polyline and Line tools, to brush lines so that you can edit them like brush lines.
For example, you might want to convert an ellipse to a brush line so that you can use
the Eraser tool on the shape to create a more natural eraser effect.
The circle on the left is a centerline shape Brush lines respond differently to editing
that was drawn with the Ellipse tool. The than centerlines do. You can remove
circle on the right has been converted to pieces of them or erase sections creating a
brush lines. more natural eraser mark than in the
centerline shape.
To convert centerline shapes to brush lines:

Select tool.
2. Use the Select tool to select the centerline shapes you want to convert.
3. Select Tools > Convert Lines to Brush.
See Also
Converting Brush Strokes to Pencil Lines on page 89
71
Working With Text

With the Text tool, you can create drawing objects based on the text you type, the
font you select and text attributes you apply. Text objects are a part of a drawing, so
you can manipulate them in the same way (for example, painting, scaling, skewing and
transforming).
Creating Text
To add text to your drawing:
1. Activate the Text tool:
• From the Tools > Drawing Tools menu or Drawing Tools toolbar, select the
Text tool.
• Press [T], the default keyboard shortcut.
2. In the Drawing View or Camera View, click the location where you would like the
text to begin. (You can move it later, if you change your mind.)
In this example, we want

to include a title that
appears above the
trees.
At this point, you can choose to open the Properties window and select a specific
text font and format the text you will type. To learn more about text formatting,
see “Formatting Text” on page 73.
3. Type the text you want to appear in the drawing.
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Chapter 2: Drawing
4. If you want to add a new text object, click outside the current text box. You can
always re-select a text object, by activating the Text tool and clicking the text.
See Also
Creating Text on page 72
Formatting Text on page 73
Converting Text Into Separate Objects on page 76
Formatting Text
Use the Properties window to select the font type and other attributes you want to
apply to the text.
To display the text object’s font properties:

1. Select Window > Properties to open the Properties window.
2. Click the Text tab.
73
3. You can use this tab to select a new font and other text characteristics. You can
select all or a part of the text that has already been typed or select properties that
will apply to text you are about to type.
• Use the first drop-list to select the font you want to apply to the text. The list
will display all of the fonts on your system, however only vector fonts can be
used to create a text object.
• Use the Size drop-list to select the text point size, and the Bold and Italics
buttons to change the thickness and angle of the characters. If italicized or

boldface versions of this font are not installed on your system, these buttons
will be disabled.
• Use the Kerning field to fine-tune the spacing between characters. You can
select the Auto Kern option to set the kerning automatically, based on the
font’s predefined standard. Negative numbers decrease spacing between
each characters and positive numbers increase it.
• Use the buttons to select the paragraph Alignment. You can left, center, right
and full justify text.
• Enter a value in the Indent field to decrease or increase the indentation on the
first line of text.
• Enter a value in the Line Spacing field to decrease or increase the space
between each line of text.
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Chapter 2: Drawing
See Also
Changing Text Color on page 75
Changing Text Color

You can change the color of your text by applying a new color to text that is selected or
about to be typed using the Properties dialog box Color Palette tab.
To display the text object’s color properties:

1. If the Properties dialog box is not already open, select Window > Properties.
2. If it is not selected, click the Color Palette tab.
3. Select the text you want to recolor.
75
4. In the palette list, select the swatch of the color you want to apply.
In this example, two

swatches in the palette
list were selected to
recolor the text object.
See Also
Painting Zones in Your Drawings on page 151
Converting Text Into Separate Objects

Upon creation, text objects are treated as a single drawing object. You can easily
separate each character into a unique drawing object.
To separate each character into a discrete text object:
1. Use the Select drawing tool to select the text object that you want to separate
into smaller text objects.
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Chapter 2: Drawing
2. Select Tools > Break Text Apart.
3. Deselect the text. Each character is surrounded by its own bounding box, but the
objects in the original text object will remain in a grouped selection until you click
outside the selection or use the Deselect All command (Use [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[A] in
Windows or [Command]+[Shift]+[A] in MacOS).
4. Select a character.
Each character can be selected as a separate object. Each character in the text below has been
rotated and repositioned.
See Also
Changing Text Color on page 75
77
Working with Selections

You can select and modify any drawing object. When you select a drawing object, a
bounding box appears around it and you can then change its properties (color, shape,
angle) or its location in the drawing space.
If you press the [Shift] key, you can

select more segments and add them to
what you’ve already selected.
You can change an object’s properties interactively in the Drawing View or Camera
View window or by changing its properties in the Properties window.
There are several ways to select drawing objects:

• To select all the objects, select Edit > Select All.
• To select one or more objects, click the Select drawing tool and use one of
these methods:
D Click on the object. To select more than one object, press [Shift] and click
the additional objects you want to select.
D Drag the Select tool over each object (drawing a selection square across
each object).
D Press [Alt] (Windows) or [Command] (MacOS) and drag the lasso around
or through each object you want to select.
As long as a selected drawing object was not created with the Text tool, you can
copy it by pressing [Ctrl] (Windows) or [Option] (MacOS) and dragging the
selection away from its original position.
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Chapter 2: Drawing
To deselect the objects, you have two choices:
• To deselect an object without deselecting the others, press [Shift] and click on
each object that you don’t want.
• To deselect them all, you can select Edit > Deselect All, click the Select
tool in an empty space in the Drawing View window, or press [Esc].
See Also
Ordering Drawing Objects on page 80
Resizing, Flipping, Rotating and Moving Drawing Objects on page 81
Cutting, Copying, and Pasting Drawing Objects on page 84
Deforming a Drawing Object on page 85
Grouping Drawing Objects

Grouping drawing objects will help you position, transform and deform multiple
objects as one.
To group drawing objects:

1. Select the drawing objects you want to group.
2. Select Tools > Group.
To ungroup drawing objects:

1. Select the grouped drawing object.
2. Select Tools > Ungroup.
See Also
79
Ordering Drawing Objects

The order that you draw objects determines their initial layering order. Drawing
objects that are drawn last appear in the Camera View on top of drawing objects drawn
earlier.
Drawing 1 was drawn first and Drawing 3 was 1 2

drawn last.
These drawing objects will always appear in
this layering order unless you change them.
To change the layering order of drawing objects:

1. Select the drawing object that you want to reorder.
2. From the Tools > Arrange menu, select one of the following commands:
• Bring to Front: moves the currently selected drawing objects on top of all
other objects in the drawing.
• Bring Forward: moves the currently selected drawing objects forward by one
layer in the layering order.
• Send to Back: moves the currently selected drawing objects behind all other
objects in the drawing.
• Send Backward: moves the currently selected drawing objects backward by
one layer in the layering order of the drawing.
If you are drawing with the Brush tool with the Tools > Draw Top Layer option
enabled, drawing objects are merged to one layer.
See Also
Merging Layers Using Draw Top Layer on page 95
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Chapter 2: Drawing
Resizing, Flipping, Rotating and Moving

Drawing Objects
When you select one or more drawing objects, a bounding box appears around the
selected objects. If you take a close look at the bounding box, you’ll notice that there
are small boxes in each corner, in the center of each side, and on the right side of the
bounding box. These boxes are called handles.
One drawing can be made up of many individual
lines, but when you select more than one, one
bounding box appears for all the selected lines.
Handles
Depending on the handle you select, you can make different types of changes to the
selected object. When you pass your pointer over a handle or over the object, the
pointer changes to indicate the type of change you can make.
• Move : changes the current position of the selection. To nudge selected

objects, you can also use the arrow keys. Press [Shift] if you want to move the
object in larger increments.
• Resize Sides : changes the width of the selected lines/shapes.
• Resize Top/Bottom : changes the height of the selected lines/shapes.
• Resize Height/Width : changes the height and width of the selected lines/
shapes. Press [Shift], and the shape will resize proportionally.
• Rotate : changes the angle of the selected lines/shapes. Hold down the
[Shift] key when dragging rotation handles to rotate the object in 15 degrees
at a time.
If you drag a handle beyond its opposing handle on the bounding box, you will flip the
drawing object either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
You can also use the following commands in the Tools > Transform menu to flip and
rotate your drawing objects:
• Flip Horizontal: swaps the left and right side of the image.
• Flip Vertical: swaps the top and bottom of the image.
• Rotate 90° CW: turns the drawing 90 degrees to the right (clockwise).
• Rotate 90° CCW: turns the drawing 90 degrees to the left (counter-clockwise).
81
• Rotate 180°: rotates the image 180 degrees.

See Also
Grouping Drawing Objects on page 79
Changing the Center of Transformation

You can change the center of the rotation and scaling effects. This might come in handy
if you want to rotate or scale a drawing from a corner, rather than from the center.
We rotated this drawing

on the original drawing
pivot in the center of
the bounding box.
We moved the drawing pivot to

the corner and then rotated the
drawing object to achieve
different results.
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Chapter 2: Drawing
To change the location of the drawing pivot:
1. With the Select tool, select the drawing object you want to transform.
2. In the bounding box, drag the drawing pivot (initially in the center of the
selection) to its new position.
The point starts off in the center of the drawing object.
You can move the

drawing pivot to any
location.
3. Scale or rotate the drawing object.

• To use the new position of the drawing pivot as you scale, press [Alt]
(Windows) or [Option] (MacOS) as you drag. If you don’t press this key, Toon
Boom Studio scales the drawing object from the opposite corner that you drag
from.
• To rotate from the center, press [Alt] (Windows) or [Option] (MacOS) as you
rotate. If you don’t press this key, Toon Boom Studio rotates from the
drawing pivot.
• Hold down the [Shift] key at the same time for added control: you will be able
to rotate drawings in 15 degree increments and maintain the relative
proportions of scaled drawings.
See Also
83
Cutting, Copying, and Pasting Drawing

Objects
You can cut, copy, and paste drawing objects in different areas of the current drawing
or place them in a completely different drawing.
To cut, copy, and paste drawing objects:
1. Click the Select tool and select the drawing objects you want to cut or copy.
2. Decide if you want to create a copy of the object or if you want to remove it.
• Select Edit > Copy Drawing Object to copy the selected object.
• Select Edit > Cut Drawing Object to cut the selected object. The original
object disappears from the View window.
3. Select Edit > Paste Drawing Object to place the copied object in the View
window. The pasted object appears slightly offset from the original.
4. If you want to create a new drawing from the selected object, select another cell in
the Exposure Sheet window or frame in the Timeline window, and reselect the
View window before you paste the object.
• If you just want to make a copy of the selected objects, press [Ctrl]
(Windows) or [Option] (MacOS) and drag the select objects.
• Text and drawing objects can be selected simultaneously, however drawing
tools will have no effect on the text. To convert text into a drawing object,
use the Break Text Apart command (Tools > Break Text Apart).
See Also
Creating Cycles on page 358
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Chapter 2: Drawing
Deforming a Drawing Object

You can use the Perspective tool to skew and distort (also known as “deforming”)
the selected drawing object in the Drawing View window.
If you drag the center handles, you can add a

slant to the selected drawing.
If you drag the corner handles, you
can stretch and distort the selected
drawing.
For example, if you had an image you wanted to appear as viewed from an angle, you
could draw the image as it looks from the front and then use the Perspective tool to
distort it so that it would appear like you were looking at it from an angle.
To deform a drawing object:

1. From the Tools > Drawing Tools > Select menu or from the Drawing Tools
toolbar, select the Perspective tool.
2. Select the drawn objects you want to deform. Press [Shift] to select multiple
objects.
3. Drag the selection handles to deform the selected object.
Toon Boom Studio redraws the shape with its new perspective.
See Also
85
Changing the Color of Brush Strokes, Fills

and Centerline Objects
After you draw brush strokes and centerline objects and fill them with color, you can
modify their color properties using the Color Palette tab in the Properties window.
In this example, we
changed the color of the
lower body segment to
the same green that we
used on the top.
To change the color of a brush stroke or color fill:
1. Use the Select tool to select the brush stroke, centerline object or color fill
whose color you want to change.
2. In the Properties window Color Palette tab, click the new color swatch you want
to assign to the brush stroke or color fill. Toon Boom Studio changes the color of
the selection to match the properties of the new swatch.
See Also
Changing the Thickness of Centerline Objects on page 87
Inking Line Art on page 166
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Chapter 2: Drawing
Changing the Thickness of Centerline

Objects
To change the properties of the line art, select the line art you want to affect and adjust
the line size in the Pen tab or change the line color using the swatches in the Color
Palette tab.
We drew this simple circle
with the Ellipse tool, which
creates centerline objects.
You can change the
maximum size of centerline
objects by dragging the
Maximum size slider on the
Pen tab.
You can use the Pen and Color Palette tabs to make the following types of changes:
• To change the color of a line or color region, click the Select tool, select the
line or region, and select a swatch from the Properties window’s Color
Palette tab.
• To change the width of lines, use the Select tool to select the object and adjust
the sliders on the Pen tab.
See Also
Changing the Color of Brush Strokes, Fills and Centerline Objects on page 86
Drawing with the Polyline Tool on page 67
Drawing Pencil Lines on page 70
87
Optimizing Drawing Objects for the

Web
When you design your animation for the Web, you should consider taking steps to
reduce the file size of your final animation. The smaller the file, the faster it downloads
over the Internet, and the faster it will play on the machines of your audience.
Key to the production of small-sized animation is reducing the amount of points in
your drawings. The fewer points you have in a line or a shape, the smaller the file size
will be because each point requires memory to store it.
Shapes you draw with the Pencil , Line , Polyline , Rectangle and Ellipse
tools create a minimum amount of points that run down the center of the shape.
Strokes you draw with the Brush tool require more memory to store because the
points that compose it run along the outside of the shape to create the variable-width
effect.
There are only two points in this line,

which we drew with the Line
tool.
There are only
seven points in this line, which we
drew with the Pencil tool.
This brush stroke is surrounded by a number

of points. It requires more memory to store,
but the extra points are necessary to achieve
the variable-width of the line.
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Chapter 2: Drawing
Toon Boom Studio has a number of tools that you can use to reduce the number of
points in your drawings, making them simpler and less heavy. You can use any of
these commands to simplify your drawings and reduce the complexity and file size of
your animation:
• Converting Brush Strokes to Pencil Lines on page 89
• Reducing Drawing Layers with the Optimize Command on page 91
• Reducing Drawing Layers with the Flatten Command on page 92
• Removing Points with the Smooth Command on page 93
• Merging Layers Using Draw Top Layer on page 95
See Also
Cloning Elements on page 343
Converting Brush Strokes to Pencil Lines

After you draw variable-width strokes with the Brush tool, you can convert the
brush stroke to a pencil line to reduce the number of points in the line with the Extract
Center Line command.
Toon Boom Studio calculates the average distance between opposing exterior points in
a brush stroke to create a centerline of points. You should convert your brush strokes
to pencil lines before you ink them (changing their color).
If you have brush strokes with two different widths, Toon Boom Studio calculates the
average of both widths to create a smooth pencil line with one width size.
Because each point in a stroke requires memory

to store, converting your brush strokes to pencil
lines reduces the file size of your final movie.
89
To convert selected brush strokes to pencil lines:
1. Select View > Show Strokes to display the lines that compose your drawing
objects.
2. Click the Select tool and click the brush strokes you want to convert. To select
multiple brush strokes, press [Shift] and click the brush strokes.
3. Select Tools > Extract Center Line.
As soon as you activate the command, Toon Boom Studio converts the selected
brush strokes to pencil lines. If the Show Stroke command is active, you can see
the exterior contour line of the brush stroke move to the center to become a pencil
line.
Do not use Extract Center Line on painted zones. Painted zones are surrounded by
points and then filled with color. When you apply Extract Center Line to a painted
zone, you may get unexpected results.
See Also
Deleting Points from Vector Shapes on page 105
Reducing Drawing Layers with the Optimize Command on page 91
Reducing Drawing Layers with the Flatten Command on page 92
Removing Points with the Smooth Command on page 93
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Chapter 2: Drawing
Reducing Drawing Layers with the Optimize

Command
When you have two overlapping shapes with the same color characteristics (color
value and transparency), you can use the Optimize command to reduce the number of
layers in the drawing, which reduces the number of redundant points and the file size.
Toon Boom Studio automatically performs this function when you export a Adobe
Flash movie.
Optimize will change the drawing objects only if merging the selected objects will not
change the appearance of the final image.
For example, if you have selected a number of partially transparent objects, which you
layered to create an additive color effect, the selected transparent drawing objects will
not be merged. This is because merging the transparent drawing objects will cause
them to lose the effect of the layered transparent colors.
This face is made up of two round shapes painted with

the same color swatch. When you optimize the
shapes, they are merged to one layer, eliminating
extra points and reducing the file size of the drawing.
To reduce drawing layers with the Optimize command:

objects.
3. Select Tools > Optimize.
As soon as you activate the command, Toon Boom Studio merges all of the
selected objects that it can, while preserving the look of the drawing.
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See Also
Reducing Drawing Layers with the Flatten

Command
The Flatten command merges drawing layers into one, reducing the number of points
in your drawings and reducing the file size of your animation.
These two circles will appear on top of each other as in the final
image, so there is no reason to have them on two separate
layers.
When they are flattened, the parts of any bottom
layers overlapped by a top layer are removed
because they have different color properties.
The Flatten command is different from the Optimize command in that it does not
verify first to make sure that the merge will not affect the final appearance of the image.
If the layered objects have transparencies, the cumulative effect of the transparency is
not preserved when you flatten the layers. Also, the Flatten command may not
preserve the layer order of overlapping centerline shapes.
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These circles are transparent, but when they are layered the
overlapping area is less transparent because of the additive effect
of the layering.
This overlapping effect is not preserved when you merge the
circles into one layer. All overlapping areas will assume
the color properties of the bottom shape in the
selection.
In this case, one shape is created out of the two
because they have the same color properties.
To reduce drawing layers with the Flatten command:

objects.
3. Select Tools > Flatten.
As soon as you activate the command, Toon Boom Studio merges all of the
selected objects.
See Also
Removing Points with the Smooth

Command
Excessive numbers of points in your drawings can increase the size of your Web
animation unnecessarily. Often you can reduce the number of points in a drawing,
adjust the curve, and still maintain the same shape. This can be quite time consuming
if you have a lot of brush strokes to adjust.
Toon Boom Studio can automate this process for you with the Smooth command. The
Smooth command removes unnecessary points from a brush stroke and adjusts the
brush stroke so that the curves are maintained.
93
You can apply the Smooth command repeatedly; however the more times you apply
the command the less definition your shape will have.
This shape was drawn with the Brush tool and created a
lot of points.
After applying the Smooth command a

couple of times, Toon Boom Studio reduced the
number of points and preserved the shape of the object.
To remove points with the Smooth command:

objects.
2. Click the Select tool and click the brush strokes you want to remove points
from. To select multiple brush strokes, press [Shift] and click the brush strokes.
3. Select Tools > Smooth.
As soon as you activate the command, Toon Boom Studio removes points and
recalculates the curves of the drawing objects you select.
See Also
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Chapter 2: Drawing
Merging Layers Using Draw Top Layer

You can have Toon Boom Studio optimize layers automatically as you draw using the
Draw Top Layer command. When you activate this command, Toon Boom Studio
merges drawing layers as you draw.
With the Draw Top Layer command disabled, you can

see in the second picture how the two clouds kept their
original form as they are moved apart.
With the Draw Top Layer command enabled, you

can see that when we drag these two objects
apart, the top layer took a bite out of the bottom
layer Toon Boom Studio merged the layers.
To enable or disable the Draw Top Layer command:

• Select Tools > Draw Top Layer. A check appears next to the command when
it is enabled.
See Also
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Cutting and Erasing Drawing

Objects
As you use the drawing tools to create the objects and characters in your scene, you
may need to cut or erase sections of drawing objects to refine your artwork. For
example, if you need only the top left quarter of an ellipse, you can draw a full ellipse
and cut away the section that you need.
Toon Boom Studio provides you with three tools that allow you to cut or erase parts of
your artwork. You can select these tools from the floating Drawing Tools toolbar.
The Scissor tool and Eraser tool both allow you to remove parts from drawing
objects, but function differently. The Scissor tool allows you to create cut selections.
The Eraser tool allows you to draw the shape of the section you want to erase.
The Cutter tool is slightly different from the Scissor and Eraser. With the Cutter
tool, you divide regions with a stroke. You can then move, delete or transform those
selections with the Select tool.
Eraser tool: erases parts of

your lines and shapes.
Cutter tool: divides

regions so that you can
move, delete or modify
them with the Select tool.
We have displayed strokes in
these two drawings to illustrate
what is happening.
Scissor tool: makes

rectangular or lasso
selections that you can
move or delete.
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Chapter 2: Drawing
The Scissor tool is the Cutter tool from Toon Boom Studio version 2.x.
See Also
Using the Scissor to Cut Parts from Drawing Objects on page 97
Erasing Parts from Drawing Objects on page 98
Using the Scissor to Cut Parts from

Drawing Objects
Toon Boom Studio has the Scissor tool that you can use to cut sections from shapes
in your drawings. You can then move and modify these cut pieces in any way you
please.
The Scissor tool makes a rectangular selection that you can use to select the area you
want to cut. By pressing [Alt] (Windows) or [Command] (MacOS), you can use a lasso
to cut the shape you want.
The rectangle and ellipse are centerline shapes.

When you cut a centerline object, Toon Boom Studio
rounds the ends of the cut lines. Notice how the
painted area is cut straight.
The cyclist was drawn with the Brush tool. The
Scissor tool makes clean cuts of the brush strokes
To cut parts from drawing objects:

1. From the Tools > Drawing Tools menu or from the Drawing Tools toolbar, select
the Scissor tool.
2. Drag the Scissor tool across the section of the drawing object you want to cut. The
Scissor tool creates a rectangular selection over the area. You can press [Alt]
(Windows) or [Command] (MacOS) to create a lasso selection mark of the shape
you want.
97
3. Use the Scissor tool to move the cut selection away from the original drawing
object. If you deselect the cut object or the Scissor tool, the cut will disappear and
the object will remain uncut.
After you cut your shapes, you can use the Contour Editor tool to reshape them into
whatever shape you like.
See Also
Reshaping Brush Strokes on page 102
Erasing Parts from Drawing Objects

The Eraser tool in Toon Boom Studio works as a traditional eraser works on ink and
paper, it allows you to remove a section of a drawing object.
With the Erase tool, you can create new shapes or erase sections completely from
existing shapes.
Toon Boom Studio creates new vectors lines to define the erased zones. If you create a
closed zone with the Eraser tool, you can:
• Fill the zone with a different color.
• Reshape the zone to create a different form.
In this example, we drew an

eraser line through the circle,
then recolored the new
drawing object that was
created.
To erase a section of a shape or brush stroke:

the Eraser tool.
2. Select the Pen tab in the Properties window and select a pen style to set the size of
the Eraser tool. The eraser icon in the Pen tab will display next to the selected pen
style.
3. Drag your pointer through the parts of the drawing you want to erase.
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Chapter 2: Drawing
You can adjust the size of the erasure line using the controls in the Pen tab. The Eraser
pen style allows you to create a different set of pen properties than those of all of other
drawing tools.
See Also
Using the Cutter to Separate Regions in

Drawing Objects
With the Cutter tool, you divide regions with a stroke. You can then move, delete
or transform those selections with the Select tool.
The Cutter tool divides
regions into separate parts
that you can modify.
To use the Cutter tool to separate regions in drawing objects:

objects. Displaying the strokes helps you see the changes created by the Cutter
tool.
the Cutter tool.
3. Drag the Cutter tool to create a dividing line between the regions you want to
separate.
4. Use the Select tool to select the regions created by the Cutter tool and move,
delete or modify them.
See Also
Using the Scissor to Cut Parts from Drawing Objects on page 97
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Modifying the Shape of Vector Lines

When you draw a line or a shape in Toon Boom Studio, you can use the Contour Editor
tool to modify and reshape it.
You can select the Contour Editor tool from the
pop-up menu on the Drawing Tools toolbar.
The Contour Editor is an important tool in the optimization of drawings for the Web.
• With the Contour Editor, you can delete points from lines and shapes you
draw. When you reduce the number of points in a drawing, you reduce the
amount of memory required to store the file.
• After you delete unnecessary points, you can use the Contour Editor to
reshape your drawing objects.
Using the Contour Editor tool, you can transform a simple square into more complex
and sleek forms that would have taken longer to draw by hand.
The Contour Editor tool allows you to create smoother curves because you are
changing the curve of an existing line instead of drawing it manually.
See Also
Reshaping Centerline Shapes on page 101
Adding Points to Vector Shapes on page 104
Deleting Points from Vector Shapes on page 105
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Chapter 2: Drawing
Reshaping Centerline Shapes

Toon Boom Studio adds points down the center of centerline shapes drawn with the
following tools: Pencil, Line, Polyline, Ellipse, and Rectangle. You can use the
Contour Editor to move these points and change the shape of centerline shapes.
To reshape centerline shapes:

Contour Editor and click the shape you want to modify.
You can now see the centerline of the

shape along with the points
that make up the
centerline.
If you want to create closed zones as you reshape your drawing objects, use the Snap
to Contour option.
• Select Tools > Snap to Contour to enable this option.
2. To change the shape of the centerline shape, drag one of the centerpoints or the
line to a new position.
Click a centerpoint to display its handles.
You can drag the centerpoint, line or handles in any
direction to stretch or curve a centerline shape.
3. Drag one of the curve handles to adjust the curve of the line. You cannot drag the
segment to change the curve shape.
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Dragging one handle To move each curve

automatically moves the handle handle independently,
pair. Dragging a pair of handles press [Alt] (Windows) or
or a centerpoint directly affects [Command] (MacOS) and
the both of the line segments then drag the handle.
attached to it.
If you can’t see the curve

handles, click any centerpoint.
Press [Alt] (Windows) or
[Command] (MacOS), and click
a point to reset the angle of the
handles.
4. To remove the angles on the handles, press [Alt] (Windows) or [Command]

(MacOS) and click the point.
To move the entire drawing while the Contour Editor is active, press [Alt]
(Windows) or [Command] (MacOS) and drag the drawing to its new position.
See Also
Cutting and Erasing Drawing Objects on page 96
Reshaping Brush Strokes

When you use the Brush, Toon Boom Studio creates a shape that is surrounded by
points, creating what we call a contour line. Toon Boom Studio also creates contour
lines when you paint an enclosed shape. You can reshape either Brush lines or painted
zones with the Contour Editor.
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Chapter 2: Drawing
To change the shape of a brush stroke:
You can use the control points around the
shape to change the shape and thickness
of the brush stroke.
2. To change the shape of the brush stroke, drag the control point of the line to a new
position.
There are two curve handles around the point

you just selected. Every point on the line has
two of these curve handles.
If you want to create closed zones as you reshape your drawing objects, use the Snap
to Contour option.
• Select Tools > Snap to Contour to enable this option.
3. Drag one of the curve handles to adjust the curve of the line. You can use these
curve handles to change the amount of curve in the line between the current point
and the nearest points on either side.
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If you simply drag one curve handle, the curve of

the line that passes through that control point
changes on both sides of the point.
To move each curve handle independently,

press [Alt] (Windows) or [Command]
(MacOS) and drag the handle.
4. To remove the angles on the handles, press [Alt] (Windows) or [Command]

(MacOS) and click the point.
To move the entire drawing while the Contour Editor is active, press [Alt]
(Windows) or [Command] (MacOS) and drag the drawing to its new position.
See Also
Painting a Zone with a Solid Swatch on page 152
Adding Points to Vector Shapes

All vector shapes in Toon Boom Studio are composed of points. These points mark an
edge or a position where the centerline or contour changes direction. You can add
more points to a centerline or contour to add a more pronounced edge to a shape or a
line.
For example, if you wanted a straight line to flow upwards from the start point and
then turn back down sharply to the end point, you could add a point to the center of
the line and drag it upwards to the new position.
You can add as many points as you like. However, the more points you add, the greater
the file size will be in the final animation.
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Chapter 2: Drawing
The line’s shape changes to

follow the new point.
To add points to vector artwork:

2. Press [Ctrl] (Windows) or [Option] (MacOS) and click on the centerline or contour
of the shape you want to modify. A new control point now appears on the line.
3. You can drag this new control point to a new position or use the curve handles to
adjust the curve of the line as it passes through the new control point.
In this example, we add two control points on

the left and right sides of the square and
dragged them both to the right.
Notice how the curve handles
appear on the top corners now
that the sides of the square have
changed.
See Also
Deleting Points from Vector Shapes

All vector shapes in Toon Boom Studio are composed of points. These points mark an
edge or a position where the center line or contour line changes direction.
You can delete points from a center/contour line to remove pronounced edges from a
shape or a line. Deleting points from vector artwork also reduces the file size of your
final Adobe Flash movie file.
105
To transform a square into a

triangle, delete one of the four
corner points.
The lines in the square
change direction to follow the
remaining points.
To delete control points from vector artwork:

2. Click a point on the shape.
The selected control point appears white.

You can select multiple control points by
pressing [Shift] and clicking the control points
you want.
3. Press [Delete] to delete the selected control point(s). The line that flowed through
the selected deleted control point adjusts itself based on the remaining controls
points.
With the center point gone, the line straightens itself out,
taking the shortest distance between two points, forming a
triangle.
Be careful not to delete too many control points!
For example, if you delete three of the four
control points on this square, the shape will
disappear.
See Also
Adding Points to Vector Shapes on page 104
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Chapter 2: Drawing
Setting Up Your Pens

As you design the elements of your scene, you can select different types of pens to
draw and erase lines with different qualities. The lines can be thin or thick, and be
smooth or rough. You can configure all this in the Pen tab of the Properties window.
If you don’t see the Properties window, select
Window > Properties.
Each pen style displays:
• the name of the pen style

• the amount of smoothing correction that Toon
Boom Studio will apply when you draw with it
• the minimum/maximum size of its line
• a preview of the pen style
A brush pen style applies to all drawing tools except the Eraser tool. An eraser pen
style applies when the Eraser tool is activated.
When you select a pen style, all lines you draw will have the properties of that pen style
until you select another. You can create customized pen styles for each project you are
working on.
For example, if you are working on a project whose drawings use a thick outside line
but use thinner lines for the detailed areas, you could create two pen styles for each
type of line.
See Also
Creating and Removing Pen Styles on page 108
Modifying a Pen Style on page 109
107
Creating and Removing Pen Styles

Toon Boom Studio provides you with five default pen styles, but you can add your
own custom-built pen styles to the Pen tab. All pen styles you create are available in
every scene in the current animation project.
As you draw your

objects, you can
continue to make
adjustments to your
pen styles.
To create your own pen style:

1. Click the Add Pen Style button. A copy of the currently selected pen style
appears at the bottom of the pen styles list. This copy becomes the active brush
pen style. If the Eraser tool is active, it is the active eraser pen style.
2. Select the minimum and maximum size of the drawing line with the Minimum
size/Maximum size sliders.
The minimum value only applies when you use a pressure-sensitive pen and
tablet. If you draw your lines with your mouse, the line thickness always uses the
maximum value.
3. Adjust the smoothness of the line with the Smoothness slider.
• 0: makes a slight adjustment, allowing sharper edges
• 10: makes a greater adjustment, reducing the number of sharp edges and the
number of points in the line (smaller file size in your exported animation)
When you draw a line with the Brush tool, the Pencil tool or the Eraser
tool, Toon Boom Studio makes an adjustment to the line based on the value in this
panel. It smooths out any sharp edges or jagged peaks in the line.
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Chapter 2: Drawing
4. Double-click the new pen style. The name field for the pen style becomes editable.
5. Type the pen style’s name in the field and press [Enter] (Windows) or [Return]
(MacOS).
6. To remove a pen style, simply select the pen style and click Remove Pen Style
button.
See Also
Modifying a Pen Style

You can modify the size, smoothness, and name of any pen style in the animation
project. When you make changes to a pen style, Toon Boom Studio updates the pen
styles in every scene in the animation project. Only drawings you make after the pen
changes are affected.
To modify a pen style:

1. Select the pen style you want to modify. The selection becomes the active brush
pen style. If the Eraser tool is active, it is the active eraser pen style.
2. Modify the characteristics of that pen style by adjusting the following:
• Select the minimum and maximum size of the drawing line with the
Minimum size/Maximum size sliders.
• Adjust the smoothness of the line from the Smoothness slider.
• Rename the pen style by double-clicking it and typing the new name in the
field.
Any changes you make to pen styles only affect the lines you draw or erase
afterward.
If you remove a pen style, any lines you drew or erased with that pen style do not
change; the line art remains unchanged even if you delete the pen style that created
it.
You can use the pen styles with the eraser and drawing tools to draw and erase lines
with different qualities. The lines can be thin or thick, and be smooth or rough
109
See Also
Creating and Removing Pen Styles on page 108
Setting Up Your Drawing Space

You can customize your drawing space to suit your needs. You can:
• Display a grid that you can use as a reference while you draw.
• Rotate the drawing space so that you can get a better angle on your drawings.
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Chapter 2: Drawing
• Use the onion skin to view previous and next drawings in an element layer.
See Also
Static Light Table: Displaying Selected Drawings on page 118
Auto Light Table: Displaying All Images in a Frame on page 121
Zooming and Panning the View Window on page 122
Displaying the Drawing Grid

When you are drawing your objects, it may be difficult to draw them on a plain white
surface that does not have any reference points. You can choose to display a grid that
appears either behind or in front of your objects.
111
When you have the size of your animation set to 500 x 375, the 12 Field Grid is the
same size as the camera frame in the Camera View.
You can use the grid to judge the

distance and size of objects in your
scene.
In this example, the grid measures
12 fields in size and the drawing
appears above it.
The drawing grid can appear in the Drawing View window or in the Camera View
window. To see the grid in the Camera View window, you must have a Drawing
element and a drawing tool selected.
To display the grid:
1. Select View > Grid > Show Grid or click the Grid button on the toolbar. A
grid appears in the Drawing View or Camera View window.
2. Select the type of grid you want to use from either the View > Grid menu or from
the Grid View toolbar button. You can choose from the following types:
• Normal : the grid is divided into a standard set of squares of equal size.
• 12 Field : the grid measures 12 fields in each compass direction from the
grid center.
• 16 Field : the grid measures 16 fields in each compass direction from the
grid center.
3. Select where you want the drawings to appear in relation to the grid from the
View menu. You have two choices:
• Underlay: the grid appears below the drawing.
• Overlay: the grid appears on top of the drawing.
You can also use the Overlay button to switch between the Overlay and
Underlay options.
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Chapter 2: Drawing
See Also
Rotating the Drawing Space

Short of flipping the monitor on its side, drawing on your computer presents new
challenges that the traditional artists didn’t have to deal with. However, Toon Boom
Studio solves that problem with the Rotate commands.
With the rotary light table,

you can change your view
of your drawing space so
that you get the best angle.
It’s only natural to want to rotate your drawing space while you are working. Getting
the best drawing angle, while seeing all of the relevant parts of your drawing, is
important for you to be able to finely craft your drawings.
113
You can rotate your drawing

space so that you get a
better angle on a part of the
drawing you are working on.
In this example, the artist is
using the Onion Skinning
feature to see the previous
position of the arm and is
rotating the drawing space
to draw the current drawing
from a different angle.
To rotate the drawing space, do one of the following:

• To turn your drawing space to the right, select View > Rotate Clockwise or
press [V].
• To turn your drawing space to the left, select View > Rotate Counter
Clockwise or press [C].
• To display the Rotary Light Table, press [Control]+[Command] (MacOS) or
[Ctrl]+[Alt] (Windows) and use your mouse to freely rotate your drawing
space.
To return your drawing space to the original angle, select View > Reset Rotation or
press [Shift] + [C].
See Also
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Chapter 2: Drawing
Onion Skin: Displaying the Next and

Previous Drawings
As you develop your scene elements, it can be very helpful to see drawings that will
appear before or after the current drawing. You can use these drawings as a reference
to figure out the size, angle or position of the drawing you are working on.
In Toon Boom Studio, the onion skin allows you to display the other drawings in the
same element that appear either before or after the current cell. You can display up to
three previous and three next drawings in the onion skin.
In this example, we can see two

previous drawings and the two next
drawings. The current drawing is on
top of all the other drawings in the
display.
Use the Onion Skin button to turn the onion skin feature on and off.
In the Drawing View, Toon Boom Studio displays previous and next drawings in the
onion skin in a different color so that you can distinguish them. You can also use the
onion skin in the Camera View to display drawings in the previous and next frames.
To set the Previous Onion Skin depth, select one of the following options from the Show
Previous toolbar button:
• No Previous Drawings : displays only the drawing in the currently

selected cell.
• Previous Drawing : displays the drawing before the current selection.
• Previous Two Drawings : displays the two drawings before the current
selection.
• Previous Three Drawings : displays the three drawings before the current
selection
115
To set the Next Onion Skin depth, select one of the following options from the Show
Next toolbar button:
• No Next Drawings : displays only the drawing in the currently selected

cell.
• Next Drawing : displays the drawing after the current selection.
• Next Two Drawings : displays the two drawings after the current
selection.
• Next Three Drawings : displays the three drawings after the current
selection.
You can also select the onion skin depth by selecting it from the View > Onion Skin
sub-menu.
See Also
Setting Onion Skin Options on page 116
Setting Onion Skin Options

By default, onion skin drawings:
• are displayed as filled shapes
• display previous drawings in shades of red
• display next drawings in shades of green
You can also display these drawings as outlines and change how drawing objects are
colored and shaded in the onion skin to suit your working style.
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Chapter 2: Drawing
To display onion skin drawings as outlines:

1. Select View > Onion Skin > Show Outline on Onion Skin.
To set onion skin shading and color preferences:

• Select Toon Boom Studio > Preferences in MacOS.
• Select Edit > Preferences in Windows.
2. Click the Light Table tab.
3. Select your color shading option.
• If you want previous and next drawings to appear in their original color and
faded, de-select the Enable Color Shading option.
• If you want previous and next drawings to appear as different colors, select
the Enable Color Shading option.
4. If the Enable Color Shading option is selected, you can choose colors for previous
and next drawings.
• Click the Previous Drawing Color or Next Drawing Color square and select
a new color from the color picker.
5. Click OK when you are done.
See Also
Setting Up Your Drawing Space on page 110
117
Static Light Table: Displaying Selected

Drawings
As you create your drawings, you may need to see drawings from other elements in
your scene so you can figure out how to draw the new drawing. While you can use the
Onion Skin to see next and previous drawings in the same element, you can’t use them
to see drawings in other element columns.
To display specific drawings from other elements in the Drawing View, you can place
them in the Static Light Table. The Static Light Table displays a paler version of the
selected drawing in the Drawing View window while you work on other drawings.
The Static Light Table appears just below the

exposure sheet when you click the Toggle Static
Light table button.
If you change the drawings that appear in the Static Light Table panel, the Static Light
Table panel updates its contents immediately.
To add a drawing to the Static Light Table:
1. Click the Static Light Table button in the Exposure Sheet window.
The Static Light Table panel appears at the bottom of the Exposure Sheet
window.
2. Drag the cell that contains the drawing or image you want to display into the
Static Light Table panel.
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Chapter 2: Drawing
A thumbnail of the selected drawing appears in the Static Light Table and the
drawing appears slightly dimmed in the Drawing View window (unless you
have it currently selected, in which case it appears in full color).
3. To remove drawings in the Static Light Table, you have two options:
• To remove selected drawings, [Control]-click (MacOS) or right-click
(Windows) the selected drawing and select Delete from the pop-up menu.
• To remove all the drawings, [Control]-click (MacOS) or right-click (Windows)
anywhere in the Static Light Table and select Delete All from the pop-up
menu.
See Also
Changing the Display of Objects in the Static Light Table on page 119
Changing the Display of Objects in the Static Light Table

When you load drawings into the Static Light Table, you can modify their display
properties so that they appear differently in the Drawing View window. These
properties only affect how the drawings appear while they are in the Static Light Table;
they do not affect the original drawings.
For example, if you had a drawing in the Static Light Table panel and it was hiding
another drawing you wanted to work on, you have two choices:
• You can hide it from view (while keeping it in the Static Light Table).
• You can change the layering order so that it no longer hides the drawing you
want to see.
Click this button to change the front/back
position of the drawing in the Static Light Table.
Select this checkbox to show/hide the drawing in
the Static Light Table.
To change the display properties of the objects in the Static Light Table, do any of the
following:
• To show/hide a drawing, select the Display checkbox above the thumbnail.
D When you select the Display checkbox, the drawing appears in the
Drawing View window.
119
D When you deselect the Display checkbox, the drawing disappears from
the Drawing View window, although it still appears in the Static Light
Table.
• To show/hide all the drawings in the Static Light Table, [Control]-click
(MacOS) or right-click (Windows) in the Static Light Table panel and select
one of the following commands from the pop-up menu:
D Show All: displays all the drawings in the Static Light Table.
D Hide All: hides all the drawings in the Static Light Table.
• To change the layering order of a drawing, click the layering icons above the
drawing’s thumbnail.
D Overlay : places the currently selected Static Light Table image above
the currently selected drawing in the Exposure Sheet window.
D Underlay : places the currently selected Static Light Table image
below the currently selected drawing in the Exposure Sheet window.
• To change the layering order for all the drawings in the Static Light Table
panel, [Control]-click (MacOS) or right-click (Windows) the Static Light
Table panel and select one of the following options from the pop-up menu:
D Overlay All: places all the drawings in the Static Light Table above the
currently selected drawing.
D Underlay All: places all the drawings in the Static Light Table below the
currently selected drawing.
To enable/disable the shading of objects that appear in the Static Light Table:
• Select Toon Boom Studio > Preferences in MacOS.
• Select Edit > Preferences in Windows.
2. Click the Light Table tab.
3. In the Static Light Table panel, select Enable Shade.
• When this option is selected, the color of objects in the Static Light Table is
paler than the original.
• When this option is de-selected, objects in the Static Light Table have the
same color shading as the original.
See Also
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Chapter 2: Drawing
Auto Light Table: Displaying All Images in a

Frame
In the Drawing View, you can use the Auto Light Table when you want to see all of the
images in a frame. Only the elements that are selected to show in the Element List will
appear in the Auto Light Table.
The Auto Light Table can help you draw objects in relation to each other. For example,
if one character is grabbing something from another, you will need to see all of the
drawings together to get a sense of how to position the characters’ hands.
In the Auto Light Table, the selected element appears on top of all other elements, and
the rest of the elements are displayed based on their layer order in the Exposure Sheet
window.
With the Auto Light Table
activated, you can see all of the
drawings at the selected frame.
To activate the Auto Light Table:
• Click the Auto Light Table button or select View > Turn Auto Light Table
On. All the drawings from the elements in the exposure in the current frame
appear in the Drawing View window.
See Also
121
Zooming and Panning the View Window
As you work on your scene in the View windows, you can change the zoom factor so
that you can zoom in closer to see some parts of your drawings in more detail or zoom
out to see the entire frame.
There are two ways to change the zoom factor on your drawing:
• You can use the Zoom In and Zoom Out commands in the View menu.
• You can use the Zoom tool to zoom in and out of a specific point or a
selected zone.
To zoom in on a specific part of your drawing:

1. Click the Zoom tool in the Drawing Tools toolbar or select Tools > Zoom. The
pointer becomes a magnifying glass.
2. Decide which part of the drawing you want to see in greater detail. You have two
choices:
• If you want to see a general area, click once on that area. If you want to zoom
in closer, click the area again.
• If you want to see a specific region in greater detail, drag the Zoom tool to
create a selection region.
3. To zoom out, press [Option] (MacOS) or [Alt] (Windows) and click the Zoom tool
on the window. The zoom factor decreases, displaying more of the drawing.
4. To reset the zoom level, select View > Reset Zoom.
To zoom in/out using the commands in the View menu:

• Select View > Zoom In to increase the zoom factor. You can also press the [X]
key.
Chapter 2: Drawing
• Select View > Zoom Out to decrease the zoom factor. You can also press the
[Z] key.
• Select View > Reset Zoom to reset the zoom level. You can also press
[Shift]+[Z].
To pan a window:
• Use the Grabber button or press [Spacebar] and move the view of the
Drawing View window.
• To return to the center of the Drawing View window, select View > Recenter
or press [Shift]+[Spacebar].
See Also
123
124
Chapter 3
Importing Artwork
This chapter explains how to import visual content, such as bitmaps and
movies, that were created in another application.
This chapter includes the following topics:
• Importing Static Images (Bitmaps) on page 126
• Vectorizing Bitmaps on page 129
• Importing Illustrator and PDF Files on page 131
• Importing Flash Movies on page 133
• Repositioning All Drawings on page 134
• Scanning, Importing and Vectorizing Bitmaps on page 135
Importing Static Images (Bitmaps)

Bitmaps might be larger in file size than vector drawings, but they do create a different
visual effect that is often desirable in animated movies.
As you are setting up your scene, you may want to use a background image for your
characters to act against. You can import any bitmap supported by the version of
QuickTime installed on your computer, including BMP, JPEG, PNG, GIF, PSD and
PICT, as well as other file formats.
In this shot, our vector character is

positioned in front of a bitmap (TGA)
file.
You must import bitmap images into Image elements. When you place a background
image in your scene, make sure you place the element column at the extreme right (the
bottom layer) of the Exposure Sheet. If you activate the Auto Light Table and you place
a background element to the left of other elements, you may hide other elements or
only see the background element in your Drawing View window.
Graphic formats like PNG and TGA support an alpha channel, which allows you to
make certain parts of an imported image transparent.
To import a bitmap image into an element in your scene:
To add an Image element to your scene:

• Select Element > Add > Image to add an image element to your animation.
• You can also click the Add Image Element button in the Exposure Sheet
window.
126
Chapter 3: Importing Artwork
1. Select the cell in the Image element in which you want to import the bitmap
image.
2. Right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) the cell where you want to

place the bitmap image and select Import Images > From File from the pop-up
menu. The Open dialog box opens.
3. Select the bitmap you want to import and confirm your selection.
The bitmap you selected appears in the selected cell. You’ll probably want to extend
this image’s exposure time so that it appears for the necessary length of your scene.
To add a new Image element and import a bitmap image:

1. Select File > Import File. The Open dialog box opens.
2. Select the bitmap you want to import and confirm your selection.
A new Image element is created and the bitmap you selected appears in the cell at the
current frame.
Importing Flash Movies on page 133
Changing the Timing (Exposure) of Drawings and Images on page 349
Creating Transparent Bitmaps on page 127
Scanning, Importing and Vectorizing Bitmaps on page 135
Creating Transparent Bitmaps

Bitmap graphics are shaped like rectangles, regardless of the shape of the image within
them.
For example, if you have an image of a dog that you want to place on top of some other
elements, the area around the dog must be transparent so that the background image
appears behind the dog, and the dog appears in the scene.
127
We made the area around the dog transparent so that

the background shows through and the dog blends into
the scene.
If you have a bitmap you want to use within the layering order of your elements, you
must make the non-image portion of your graphic transparent so that you can see
elements behind the bitmap and that other elements can appear to pass by the bitmap
in the action of your scene.
There are a couple of bitmap file formats that save transparency in an alpha (matte)
channel, including the 32-bit TARGA format (TGA), TIFF, SGI and PSD.
To create an image that has transparent areas:

1. Open the graphic in a third-party graphics application.
2. Add an alpha channel to the image and create a transparent shape that will reveal
the rest of the channels in the image.
3. Save the graphic in a file format that preserves the alpha channel.
4. Import the transparent graphic. Toon Boom Studio assumes that the alpha
channel is “straight” (not pre-multiplied).
If you can see “around” the object in the image, then you have successfully
created a transparent graphic.
Refer to your graphic application’s documentation for instructions on how to define
transparent areas.
See Also
Linking Templates to Media Elements on page 380
128
Vectorizing Bitmaps
As you develop your animation, you may want to integrate hand-drawn pictures. You
can scan these pictures and import them as bitmaps into image elements. However,
you cannot edit bitmap images in Toon Boom Studio. In addition, bitmap images are
not as flexible as vector drawings when it comes to resolution and file size.
Rather than importing your scanned drawings as bitmaps, you can transform the
scanned images into vector drawings so that you can benefit from Toon Boom Studio
vector technology.
When you import and vectorize bitmap images, you must select an appropriate image
filter and threshold. You may have to experiment with different settings to achieve the
best results for your drawings.
All color bitmaps are transformed into grayscale during the vectorization process. Any
pure color (with an RGB value of 255) will be converted to white and ignored during
the vectorization process. If you are vectorizing color bitmaps, you should recolor pure
color regions that you want to be vectorized, with another color.
To vectorize bitmap images:

1. Select a cell in a Drawing element in the Exposure Sheet or Timeline.
2. Right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) the cell and select Import and
Vectorize > From File from the pop-up window. The Open dialog box opens.
3. Select the bitmap image you want to import and vectorize, and click Open. You
can select multiple files.
• Press [Ctrl] (Windows) or [Command] (MacOS) to select image files in any
order.
• Press [Shift] to select image files in a series.
The Import and Vectorize Settings dialog box opens.
129
4. Select a bitmap filter. You may have to experiment with these settings based on
the qualities of the images you are vectorizing.
• If the lines in your bitmap are thin, select Smoothing + Loss of Sharpness.
This filter blurs the lines in the bitmap slightly so that thin lines are picked up
in the vectorization process.
• If the lines in your bitmap are very fine, select Smoothing + Greater Loss of
Sharpness. This filter blurs the lines in your bitmap more so that more lines
are transformed in the vectorization process.
• If the lines in your bitmap are thick, select Edge Enhancement. This filter
merges fine lines (noise) into larger lines to create cleaner objects.
• If the lines in your bitmaps are thick and include a lot of fine detail, select
Sharpening With Clearness. This filter sharpens edges to enhance details in
your images.
5. Select a Threshold percentage.
The Threshold value filters out noise in your bitmaps. Noise can be dirt or faint
smudges on your scanned images.
For example, if your value is set to 70%, all color values below 70% are converted
to white and ignored in the final image.
A progress dialog box opens while Toon Boom Studio imports and vectorizes your
images. You can modify these vector drawings like you would any other vector
drawing.
See Also
Repositioning All Drawings on page 134
Scanning, Importing and Vectorizing Bitmaps on page 135
130
Importing Illustrator and PDF Files

You can import Adobe Illustrator vector drawing files or PDF files into a Toon Boom
Studio drawing element. Toon Boom Studio supports Adobe Illustrator files from
version 5. You must create a PDF compatible file when you save Adobe Illustrator CS
files to be able to import them into Toon Boom Studio.
When you import Adobe Illustrator or PDF files, Toon Boom Studio:
• Converts CMYK colors to RGB.
You can convert the color space of your Adobe Illustrator or PDF files when
you save them. See Adobe Illustrator documentation for instructions.
However, to ensure the color results you want, you should develop your Web
colors in the Web-safe RGB palette.
• Displays objects that were hidden in the Adobe Illustrator file.
• Does not import text. You must convert text to outlines to import it.
• Does not import global color swatches from V8 and under.
• Does not convert transparent objects drawn with the brush tool.
If your Adobe Illustrator file contains bitmaps, be sure those bitmaps are copied into
the file. If they are linked, Toon Boom Studio can not import them.
To import Adobe Illustrator and PDF files into your scene:

To add a Drawing element to your scene:

• Select Element > Add > Drawing to add an image element to your
animation.
• You can also click the Add Drawing Element button in the Exposure
Sheet window.
2. Right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) the selected cell and select

Import Illustrator. The Open dialog box opens.
3. Select the file you want to import and confirm your selection.
You can modify this drawing just like you would modify vector drawings you
created in Toon Boom Studio.
To add a new Drawing element and import Adobe Illustrator and PDF files:
131
2. Select the Adobe Illustrator (AI) or PDF file that you want to import and confirm
your selection.
A new Drawing element is created and the Illustrator or PDF file you selected appears
in the cell at the current frame.
See Also
132
Importing Flash Movies

If you import an Adobe Flash file into your scene, Toon Boom Studio expands the
contents and lays it out as a collection of elements. Toon Boom Studio creates pegs to
manage any scaling, rotation or motion animated in the file.
To import a Adobe Flash movie:

2. Browse to the path that contains the SWF file you want, select it and confirm your
selection.
Toon Boom Studio expands the artwork within the SWF file and creates a series of
elements, preserving the original animation layout.
You can also import SWF files that are saved as templates into your Library window.
You can also link SWF files into media elements.
See Also
Using Templates on page 377
133
Repositioning All Drawings

When you hand-draw animation, you don’t always draw in the center of your paper.
Sometimes you might draw more to the right so that you can see images better as you
are flipping through them. Or, if you are preparing work for a traditional process, you
may draw your images relative to their final placement in the composited film.
When you import and vectorize bitmap images you may find that they are too far from
the center for you to work on them with ease in Toon Boom Studio. Especially when
you can work in a Sceneplanning view window to layout entire elements, it makes
more sense to draw images in the center of the Drawing View window.
You can reposition all drawings in a vector element in one move to correct drawings
that might be too far from the center to work with easily.
To reposition all drawings in an element:

1. Select a drawing element.
2. Select Tools > Drawing Tools > Reposition All Drawings. The vector drawings
in the drawing element become selected in the Drawing View window.
3. Use your mouse to reposition the drawing. Toon Boom Studio moves all
drawings in the element in the same way you moved the drawing in the cell.
See Also
134
Scanning, Importing and

Vectorizing Bitmaps
Rather than importing images from files, you can use Toon Boom Studio to get images
from any TWAIN device (such as scanners and cameras). You can either load them as
bitmaps into your scene or convert them into vector images that you can edit in Toon
Boom Studio.
You must install a TWAIN driver for your device in order to access its contents. See the
manufacturer of your device to get a TWAIN driver.
To select the device you want to use:

• Right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) a cell in an Image element
in the Exposure Sheet or Timeline and select Import Images > Select TWAIN
Source.
• Right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) a cell in a Drawing element
and select Import and Vectorize > Select TWAIN Source.
2. Use the Select Source dialog box to select the device you want to acquire content
from and click OK.
To scan or get a bitmap from a TWAIN device:

1. Select a cell in an Image element.
2. Right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) the cell and select Import
Images > From TWAIN.
3. A dialog box with your device’s options appears. Use the options in this dialog
box to select your options and then scan or load the drawings into Toon Boom
Studio.
To vectorize a bitmap retrieved from a TWAIN device:

135
2. Right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) the cell and select Import and
Vectorize > From TWAIN.
The Import and Vectorize Settings dialog box opens.
3. Select a filter. You may have to experiment with these settings based on the
qualities of the images you are vectorizing.
• If the lines in your image are thin, select Smoothing + Loss of Sharpness.
This filter blurs the lines in the image slightly so that thin lines are picked up
in the vectorization process.
• If the lines in your image are very fine, select Smoothing + Greater Loss of
Sharpness. This filter blurs the lines in your image more so that more lines
are transformed in the vectorization process.
• If the lines in your image are thick, select Edge Enhancement. This filter
merges fine lines (noise) into larger lines to create cleaner objects.
• If the lines in your images are thick and include a lot of fine detail, select
Sharpening With Clearness. This filter sharpens edges to enhance details in
your images.
4. Select a Threshold percentage.
136
The Threshold value filters out noise in your images. Noise can be dirt or faint
smudges on your scanned images.
For example, if your value is set to 70%, all color values below 70% are converted
to white and ignored in the final image.
5. Click OK to close the dialog box and continue the process.
A dialog box with your device’s options appears. Use the options in this dialog
box to select your options and then load and vectorize the drawings into Toon
Boom Studio.
See Also
Importing Static Images (Bitmaps) on page 126
Vectorizing Bitmaps on page 129
Importing Illustrator and PDF Files on page 131
137
138
Chapter 4
Inking and Painting
Learn how to produce a vibrant colorful animation using Toon Boom Studio
Express powerful inking and painting tools.
• Coloring Your Toon Boom Studio World on page 140
• Swatches on page 141
• Painting Zones in Your Drawings on page 151
• Closing Gaps in Your Drawings on page 163
• Inking Line Art on page 166
• Managing Your Colors with Palettes on page 167
Coloring Your Toon Boom Studio

World
After you create the line art for your drawing elements, you need to complete your
artwork by adding color. Toon Boom Studio features a full inking and painting suite
that allows you to add spectacular and vibrant colors to your drawings.
Toon Boom Studio makes the inking and painting process lightning fast by featuring
simple, yet powerful painting tools designed specifically to create high-quality
animation. Toon Boom Studio also provides a number of color palette management
tools that can help you track, organize and update color swatches.
See Also
Swatches on page 141
140
Chapter 4: Inking and Painting
Swatches
A swatch lets you define specific colors and textures that you can use to paint zones or
line art in your drawings. You can use swatches to store solid and gradient colors, as
well as textures, which allow you to paint with bitmap images.
You can add your own set of swatches to a color palette to define the colors in your
animation. If you use swatches to color zones consistently throughout your movie, you
can easily update the colors of your drawings when the color model changes.
The Toon Boom Studio color management system updates all zones and line art you
paint when you make changes to the color properties of the swatch. For example, if you
have a light green stripe on a pair of pants and you want to make the stripe appear
darker on all of the pant drawings, all you have to do is change the properties of the
swatch and Toon Boom Studio updates all zones that use that swatch with the new
color properties.
Shirtsleeve zone Shirt zone
Skintone
zone
Pants zone
Pantstripe
zone
Frame zone
Use the swatches in the

Color Palette tab to paint
the corresponding zones.
See Also
Coloring Your Toon Boom Studio World on page 140
Closing Gaps in Your Drawings on page 163
Managing Your Colors with Palettes on page 167
141
Adding a Swatch
When you add a swatch to your palette, the properties of the new color swatch are
based on the values of the selected swatch. If you select an existing swatch with
properties close to the new color, it will reduce the time you spend defining the new
properties.
A color swatch consists of the following:
• RGB and HSB values: define the color of the swatch.
• Alpha (Opacity) value: defines the amount of transparency in the swatch.
• Name: labels the swatch and can indicate where to apply the swatch.
To add a swatch to your scene’s palette:

1. Select the Window > Properties and click the Color Palette tab.
2. Click the New Color button. A copy of the selected swatch appears in the
palette style called New 1. If there is already a swatch named New the latest
swatch will appear as New 2 and so on.
See Also
Changing the Color Values in a Swatch on page 143
Creating a Gradient Swatch on page 144
Creating a Bitmap Swatch on page 149
142
Changing the Color Values in a Swatch

Use the color picker to change the color value of a swatch.
To change the color values in a swatch:

1. Double-click the color swatch you want to change. The color picker opens.
The look of your color picker is dependent on your operating system.
2. Use the tools in the dialog box to change the color values of the swatch. You can
leave the dialog box open and click another swatch to change its color values.
You can choose between RGB or HSV color models if you are using Windows. The
RGB and HSV panels represent different color models from which you can select your
colors.
• RGB panel: a color model based on a Red, Green, or Blue value.
• HSV panel: a color model based on Hue, Saturation, Value (brightness).
You can edit the RGB or HSV values of an existing swatch in one of two ways:
• By entering specific values
• Visually, using the color panel
To enter specific RGB or HSV values:

1. Double-click the color swatch you want to change. The Colors dialog box opens
displaying the values for the currently selected swatch.
143
2. Type the exact RGB or HSV values in the appropriate fields.
To visually determine the RGB or HSV values:

1. Double-click the color swatch you want to change. The Colors dialog box opens
displaying the values for the currently selected swatch.
2. Select the type of color model you want to use from the RGB and HSV panels.
3. Use the Color Slider and the Color panel to select the color you want to use.
As you drag the pointer around the Color panel, notice how all the other values in
the RGB and HSV fields change.
Color Slider
Color panel
Hue active Saturation active Value active
For example, to pick a color based on its hue, select the Hue radio button. The range of
colors in the Color Slider would change to display all the hues available. You can then
select the remaining S and V values from the area at the top of the Color panel.
See Also
Creating a Gradient Swatch on page 144
Creating a Gradient Swatch

You can add a color swatch to your palette that paints a zone with more than one color.
The painted zone displays multiple colors that blend smoothly from one to another.
This is called a gradient swatch.
You can create some spectacular effects using a gradient. For example, you can use a
gradient swatch to create a setting Sun.
144
In this example, the gradient

swatch has four transition
colors:
• yellow
• red
• purple
• fuscia
You can see the transition colors
at these points.
You can define up to eight different transition points within one swatch. You can then
adjust where the transitions take place by dragging transition markers to the
appropriate place. In the setting sun example, we used a Linear gradient (the colors
change in a straight line), but you can also use a Radial gradient (the colors change in
a circular motion).
To create a gradient:
1. Double-click a color swatch on the color palette tab. The color picker opens.
The look of
your color
picker is
dependent
on your
operating
system.
Transition
markers
(circled) are
located
below the
gradient bar.
2. Select the type of gradient you want from the Direction panel. You have two
choices:
• Radial: the colors blend in a circular pattern
• Linear: the color blend along a straight line
145
3. Define the transition color for each marker by clicking a marker and selecting a
color from the Color panel. A small square appears on the selected marker.
When you choose a color for a transition marker, Toon Boom Studio adjusts the
colors on either side of it based on the colors of the nearest transition markers.
4. Drag the transition markers to where you want the color to be completely
changed.
5. To add more color transitions, click directly below the gradient bar. A transition
marker appears (you can add a maximum of eight markers).
Start color
End color
Transition color
To remove a transition marker, drag it up until it disappears. The gradient colors

re-adjust to the remaining transition markers. You must always have at least two
transition markers.
See Also
Adding a Swatch on page 142
Painting Zones with Gradients and Textures on page 153
Changing the Transparency of a Swatch

The Alpha or Opacity value of a color controls its transparency. You can use
transparency to produce a foggy scene on a waterfront.
For example, if you have two circles: a blue circle with a yellow circle on top. Changing
the Opacity or Alpha value of the yellow circle lets you control how much of the blue
circle you see or hide.
146
No transparency, the yellow circle Partial transparency, the yellow circle

blocks out the blue beneath it. lets some of the blue show through.
To change the transparency of a color swatch:

1. Double-click the color swatch you want to alter, on the Color Palette tab. The
color picker opens.
2. Change the transparency by doing one of the following:
• Drag the slider to the desired value.
• Type a value of opacity or the alpha channel in the adjacent field. At 0, the
swatch is completely transparent.
See Also
Offsetting Colors in a Palette Style on page 174
Naming a Swatch
Although Toon Boom Studio gives the current swatch a default name you can change
it to one that describes where you intend to use the color. The swatch name is more
than just a label: it’s a way of defining a color zone in your drawing.
For example, let’s say you use a swatch called Skintone and you use this swatch in all
of your character’s skin zones. If you decide you want to darken a character’s skin
color, you only need to adjust the Skintone swatch. If you applied the Skintone swatch
on only the character’s skin zones, Toon Boom Studio updates all the drawings
accurately.
147
To change the Name of an existing color swatch in your palette:
1. On the Color Palette tab, click the Show/Hide Color Names button to display the
swatch names.
Click the Show/Hide Color Names button to
display swatch names.
2. Double-click the swatch name and type the new swatch name in the field.
3. Press [Enter] (Windows) or [Return] (MacOS) when you are done.

See Also
Changing the Color Values in a Swatch on page 143
148
Creating a Bitmap Swatch

You can paint vector shapes with bitmap images. Toon Boom Studio fills the vector
shape with the image, which allows you to achieve some sophisticated painting effects
that are difficult with vector painting tools.
For example, you can create a bitmap image of scales. Then you can paint your
dinosaur with the scale image. Your bitmap textures can even have transparency.
The smaller the file size of the bitmap texture, the faster your movie will render, and
the smaller the file size of your Adobe Flash movie.
To create a bitmap swatch:
1. Click the Contextual Menu button on the Color Palette tab and select Color >
Add Texture. The Open dialog box appears.
2. Choose the texture file you want to add to the swatch.
3. Click OK and the texture is added to the swatch.
See Also
Setting a Bitmap Swatch to Tile or Stretch on page 149
Setting a Bitmap Swatch to Tile or Stretch

By default, all bitmap swatches are set to tile. If you click and drag in the vector shape
you want to fill, the bitmaps will repeat and the length of one tile is based on the length
of the drag area you create.
You can change the properties of a bitmap swatch so that it stretches to fill an area.
To change the properties of a bitmap swatch:

1. In the Color Palette tab, double-click the swatch. The Texture Properties dialog
box opens.
2. Click the Tile option to select your option.
149
• When you select the Tile option, all vectors you fill with the bitmap will tile.
• When you de-select the Tile option, you turn on the Stretch option and all
paint areas will stretch to fill the area of the vector zones.
3. If you want to change the name of the swatch, type the new name in the Name
field.
4. If you want to change the image in the swatch, click the Browse button and use
the Open dialog box to find the image you want to use.
See Also
Painting a Zone with a Solid Swatch on page 152
150
Painting Zones in Your Drawings

To paint or unpaint the zones in your drawings, you use the Toon Boom Studio
painting tools. These tools let you fill closed zones with a solid or gradient color, or a
bitmap texture. You can choose colors from the color palette, or an existing line or zone.
When you paint a zone in your drawing, you add color to that zone, and assign a color
swatch to it. This lets you make color changes to your drawings without repainting
each time.
Change the properties of

the swatch and you
automatically change
the color zones.
You have two choices when painting zones with color.
• You can use the Paint tool to fill zones with color or to change the color of
a zone that is already painted.
151
• You can use the Paint Unpainted tool to paint only zones that have no
color. This tool allows you to quickly paint many zones with the same color
while not changing the color of zones that have already been painted.
See Also
Painting a Zone with a Solid Swatch

When you have enclosed zones in your drawings, you can start painting them with the
color swatches in your palette style. If you change the properties of a swatch, the color
properties of the associated zones change as well.
You can move any painted shape

independently of the line art.
When you unpaint a color zone,

you are deleting the color shape.
To paint a zone with a solid color:

1. From the Color Palette tab, select the swatch you want to use to paint the zone.
2. Select the Paint or Paint Unpainted tool from the Tools > Drawing Tools menu
or from the Drawing Tools toolbar.
152
3. Click in the enclosed zone in your drawing. If you are using the Paint Unpainted
tool, you can drag your pointer through many zones to paint the unpainted zones
with the selected color.
See Also
Unpainting Zones/Line Art on page 161
Auto Gap Close Options on page 165
Power Painting Drawings in an Element on page 159
Painting Zones with Gradients and Textures

You can fill closed vector shapes with gradients or bitmap texture. Toon Boom Studio
fills the entire zone with the gradient or bitmap texture.
To paint a zone with a gradient or bitmap, you can just click inside the vector shape,
which fills the zone with the gradient or bitmap. Or you can drag your pointer to
control the angle of the fill or the length of the transition.
• When you paint with a gradient, the first click sets the position of the start
color and where you drag the pointer sets the position of the end color; the
zone between the start and end points is the gradient.
The point where This radial The point where you Drag a linear
you click the Paint gradient begins at end the drag will be gradient to
tool determines the centre and the starting point for determine the
the center of a ends near the the last color in the gradient’s start and
radial gradient. edge of the circle. gradient. end points.
153
• When you paint with a texture, the direction you drag your pointer indicates
the direction of the bitmap fill. If your bitmap swatch is set to tile, the distance
between the first and last click indicates the length of one image in the tile.
The point where This texture has a This width of this texture tile is
you click the Paint small tile width so larger than the zone it fills.
tool determines many tiles are
the center of the required to fill the
texture. the zone.
To paint zones with gradients and bitmap textures:

2. Select the Paint or Paint Unpainted tool from the Tools > Drawing Tools
menu or from the Drawing Tools toolbar.
3. Click in the enclosed zone in your drawing or click and drag to control the
properties of the fill.
If you are using the Paint Unpainted tool, you can drag your pointer through
many zones to fill the unpainted zones with the selected gradient or bitmap.
However, you don’t get to control the properties of the fill when you paint
multiple zones.
See Also
Power Painting Drawings in an Element on page 159
154
Editing Gradient and Texture Fills

After you fill a zone with a gradient or texture bitmap, you can change its orientation
using the Edit Texture tool.
The Edit Texture tool
The texture editor

selection frame
To edit a texture:
1. Select Edit Texture tool from the Tools > Drawing Tools menu or from the
Drawing Tools toolbar.
2. Click the texture you want to edit. The texture editor appears around the textured
drawing.
Edit Selection handles
Rotate handle
Pivot point
155
3. Rotate or change the direction of the bitmap fill by grabbing and moving the
handles.
Rotated bitmap texture. Notice

the texture editor’s new position.
Drag the rotation handle.

and the bitmap texture
rotates within the line art.
Hold down the [Shift] key to
rotate it in 15 degree
increments.
Use this handle to scale the

bitmap texture.
Use this handle to

compress or expand the
bitmap texture horizontally.
To edit a gradient:
156
2. Click the gradient you want to edit. The gradient editor appears around the
drawing. The look of the editor depends on the gradient type when it is enabled.
The linear gradient editor
includes two parallel bars
that indicate the positions
The circle and the overlapping ring use
of the first and last color.
the same texture but have different The radial
texture properties, specifically their tile gradient editor is
size and rotation. the same as the
Scale handle texture editor, but
includes a guide
that indicates the
shape of the
Rotate handle
gradient’s ellipse
Pivot point
3. Rotate or change the direction of the gradient fill by grabbing and moving the
handles.
Rotated linear gradient. Notice
the gradient editor’s new position.
Drag the rotation handle and the

gradient rotates within the line art.
Hold down the [Shift] key to rotate
it in 15 degree increments.
Drag the pivot to

reposition the gradient
and change the point
around which the editor
rotates.
Drag the scale handle to expand or

compress the gradient. In this
example, the radial gradient has been
scaled down to a third of its original
size.
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Copying Gradient and Texture Fills

You can copy a gradient or texture fill’s rotation, scaling and position changes
properties and copy it to another fill.
The texture properties of the ring are
set to use those of the circle
Circle’s texture Ring’s texture

editor editor with
copied mapping
To copy a texture mapping:

2. Click the gradient or texture you want to copy. The texture or gradient editor
appears for the selected drawing.
3. Copy the properties mapped to the gradient or texture:
• Select Edit > Copy Texture Mapping.
• Select Copy Texture Mapping from the pop-up menu.
• Press [Ctrl]+[C] (Windows) or [Command]+[C] (MacOS), the default
keyboard shortcut.
4. Click the gradient or texture that you want to use the same properties to select it.
5. Paste the properties:
• Select Edit > Paste Texture Mapping.
• Select Paste Texture Mapping from the pop-up menu.
• Press [Ctrl]+[V] (Windows) or [Command]+[V] (MacOS), the default
keyboard shortcut.
The properties of a gradient texture can be mapped to another object with a different
texture or gradient swatch. Note, that you are not copying the swatch, you are copying
it properties.
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The linear gradient’s properties have The texture editor of the object on the right
been copied to an object that is filled with copies the gradient editor’s mapping. The
a texture. tile size is equivalent to the length of the
gradient.
See Also
Setting a Bitmap Swatch to Tile or Stretch on page 149
Power Painting Drawings in an Element

You can use Toon Boom Studio Paint All tool to automatically paint closed zones in the
same location in an element.
To use the Paint All tool, you click a zone in a drawing object. Toon Boom Studio then
flips through all of the drawings in the element to see if there is a closed zone in the
location you clicked. If there is, Toon Boom Studio fills the zone with the same color.
This can save you a lot of time when you are painting an element with a lot of drawings
that are very similar.
You can use the onion skin to select a location to click.
The ant’s head stays in the

same position throughout the
cycle of drawings.
159
To power paint drawings in an element:
1. Turn on the onion skin so that you see as many drawings in your element as
possible:
• Press the Onion Skin button or select View > Onion Skin > Turn Onion
Skin On, and use Onion Skin toolbar or select View > Onion Skin menu to
turn on the onion skin and select Three Previous Drawings and Three Next
Drawings.
3. Select the Paint tool from the Tools > Drawing Tools menu or from the Drawing
Tools toolbar.
4. Press [Shift]+[Alt] (Windows) or [Shift]+[Option] (MacOS) and click a zone that
many drawings in the element share.
Toon Boom Studio evaluates all of the drawings in the element to determine if
there is a closed zone beneath where you clicked.
You may have to review the drawings and make sure that the zones you wanted
painted were.
See Also
Picking a Swatch from a Line or Zone

To select the swatch you want to draw, ink or paint with, you can click a color swatch
on the Color Palette tab. However, if you have a number of color palettes, palette styles
and color swatches, it can be time-consuming to select the right color swatch.
You can use the Dropper tool to select a swatch from a drawing. When you click a zone
or line with the Dropper tool, Toon Boom Studio selects the color palette, palette style
and color swatch that from the line or zone. You can then switch to the Paint tool and
color a line or zone with the active color swatch.
To pick a color from a line or zone:
1. Select the Dropper tool from the Tools > Drawing Tools menu or the Drawing
Tools toolbar. If either the Pencil, the Paint tool, or Brush tools are active, you can
press [Alt] (Windows) or [Option] (MacOS) to activate the Dropper tool.
160
2. Click the line or zone that has the color you want to use. Toon Boom Studio
selects the color palette, palette style and color swatch that was used in the line or
zone. You can now switch to the Paint tool and fill a line or zone with the active
swatch.
Toon Boom Studio
selects the color
palette, palette
style and color
swatch of the color
you click with the
Dropper tool.
See Also
Creating Multiple Palette Styles on page 171
Blending a Color into a Palette Style on page 176
Unpainting Zones/Line Art

You can remove a color entirely from a selected zone using the Unpaint tool. This
deletes the color shape you created when you filled the closed zone with a color. You
can leave it empty or color it with another color swatch.
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When we unpainted this zone, we

effectively deleted the color shape
assigned to it.
This is not the same as just painting it white; when you delete the color shape from a
painted zone, whatever is behind the zone shows through.
Unpainted zones allow the grid in

the Drawing View window to show
through.
To remove the color from a zone or the line art:
1. Select the Unpaint tool from the Tools > Drawing Tools menu or the
2. Click the painted zone or the line art from where you want to remove the color.
If you unpaint a color zone that has line art around it, you’ll be able to repaint that
zone. But if you unpaint a line, a brush stroke, or a color shape that doesn’t have line
art, Toon Boom Studio erases that object. You will not be able to repaint that shape.
See Also
162
Closing Gaps in Your Drawings

When you draw your line art, you may not always close the zones completely.
Sometimes, intentionally or not, you might end a line too soon, creating a gap. To fill
zones with color, they must be closed. You must use the gap closing features in Toon
Boom Studio if you want to fill unclosed zones with color.
You can use the following tools to close gaps manually:
• The Close Gap tool closes zones so that you can fill them with a solid color
or gradient swatch.
• The Stroke tool allows you to draw shapes that have no visible line art.
Use these Paint tools

to close the gaps in
your drawings
While you are painting, you can also use the Toon Boom Studio auto-gap close options
to automatically close gaps as you paint.
See Also
Manually Closing Gaps on page 163
Manually Closing Gaps

To manually close gaps in your artwork so that you can paint the zones, use one of
these two tools:
• You can use the Stroke tool to close zones manually, without adding line
art.
The Stroke tool adds contours, which you can use to close zones that you can
fill with color.
• You can use the Close Gap tool to create closed zones you can fill with
color.
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The Close Gap tool automates gap closing. It finds the end points closest to
the line you draw with the Close Gap tool and draws straight lines to connect
the points. You can use this tool to close small gaps that are difficult to see.
To close a gap using the Stroke tool:

1. Select View > Show Strokes so that you can see the contours that make up the
zones you want to close. Every line and shape should display a thin blue line with
occasional contour points.
2. To activate the Stroke tool, select the Tools > Drawing Tools > Stroke or select
the Stroke tool from the Drawing Tools toolbar.
3. Drag the Stroke tool across the open gaps to close any open zones. After you close
all of the gaps in a zone, you can fill the zone with color.
Connect contours to create closed zones
that you can fill with color.
Activating the Show Strokes

command lets you see the contours.
To close a gap using the Close Gap tool:

1. Select View > Show Strokes so that you can see the contours that make up the
zones you want to close.
Every line and shape should display a thin blue line with occasional contour
points.
2. Select the Close Gap tool from Drawing Tools toolbar. Your pointer becomes a
crosspoint when the Close Gap tool is active.
3. Drag the Close Gap tool near the areas on your drawing where there are gaps.
164
Toon Boom Studio finds the closest end-points and draws a straight contour line
to connect them. After you close all of the gaps in a zone, you can fill the zone
with color.
Drag the Close Gap tool near the gap in the zone.
Toon Boom Studio finds the closest end-points and
draws straight contour lines to connect them.
Activating the Show Strokes

command lets you see the contours.
See Also
Auto Gap Close Options

By using the Auto Gap Close option you eliminate gaps in your line art as you paint.
This lets you paint your zones without having to be concerned about having gaps in
your artwork, which may prevent you from filling zones with color.
You have three tolerance levels to choose from:
• Close Small Gap
• Close Medium Gap
• Close Large Gap
You can also disable this feature.
To use auto gap closing to close zones:

1. Select Tools > Auto Gap.
2. From the Auto Gap menu, select the tolerance level you want to use:
• Disabled
• Close Small Gap
• Close Medium Gap
• Close Large Gap
165
The selected option is automatically applied when you paint your zones.
See Also
Manually Closing Gaps on page 163
Inking Line Art

When you draw line art, Toon Boom Studio uses the currently selected color swatch to
color the line. If you change the properties of the swatch, the color properties of the
associated line art change as well.
This line art uses a
linear swatch,
starting at the top
centre and ended it
at the bottom centre This line art uses
a radial swatch,
This line art starting at the
uses a solid centre and ending
swatch. at the bottom.
You can also change the color properties of a line by inking the line art with the Paint
tool. When you ink line art, you assign a new swatch to the line and change its color
properties.
To change the line art color:

• You can ink brush strokes with solid, gradient or texture swatches.
• You can only ink centerline shapes with solid swatches.
2. Select the Paint tool from the Tools > Drawing Tools menu or from the
3. Click the line art you want to ink.
See Also
Changing the Color of Brush Strokes, Fills and Centerline Objects on page 86
166
Managing Your Colors with Palettes

You can organize color swatches into palettes and palette styles. You use these to create
sets of color swatches, custom built to suit different character moods or light settings.
You can create one palette for each character/object and customize the palette styles
for each situation that character/object may be in.
One Palette
Two Styles
Different settings
For example, let’s say you had a character that appeared in two different lighting
settings. You could create a palette for that character with two palette styles (one for
each lighting setting).
See Also
167
Creating a Palette
For each character and object in your movie, you can have a different palette that
contains the customized color swatches organized by palette style. Having individual
palettes allows you to control the unique color properties of each part of your scene.
For example, let’s say you have a movie with two characters and takes place in two
different lighting sets. You would create two palettes (one for each character) that
would each have two palette styles (one for each light change).
To create a new palette:
• In the Color Palette tab, click the Contextual Menu button and select
Palette > New Palette from the pop-up menu. A new palette appears in the
Palette Name drop-list with a default name.
When you create a new

palette, Toon Boom Studio
creates a new palette with
one default color swatch.
See Also
Renaming a Palette on page 170
Copying a Palette
Because many characters have the same types of features that need painting (hair, face,
eyes, mouth, and so on), creating copies of a palette can save you time and effort. You
can create one palette and use it as a template for other palettes.
When you have this template palette, you can then create a copy of it and change its
name, the names of the palette styles, and customize all of it’s associated color
swatches to suit each character and object in your scene.
168
For example, in this scene we created a palette style that contains most of the necessary
color swatches for the Bikerdude character. Then we made two copies of that palette,
one for each character, because they all share similar color zones (Skintone, Frame,
shirt, pants and so on).
In this example, colors common to each scene remain the same in each palette.
The colors of the clothing elements are different in each scene so these colors are different in each palette
When you copy a palette, you are also copying all the palette styles contained in that
palette. Each palette style contains the color swatches you can use to add color to a
specific character.
To create a copy of your palette:

1. Select the palette you want to copy from the Name drop list in the Color Palette
tab.
2. Click the Contextual Menu button and select Palette > Duplicate Palette from
the pop-up menu.
A new palette appears in the Palette Name drop-list. This copied palette contains
all of the palette styles (and their associated color swatches) that the original
palette had.
See Also
Creating a Palette on page 168
169
Renaming a Palette
When you create a new palette or you copy an existing palette, Toon Boom Studio
assigns a default name to it. You can rename the palette to give it a more descriptive
name.
For example, if you had four characters in a scene, you could create four palettes that
each contain the customized color swatches for each character.
To rename a palette:
1. Select the palette you want to rename from the Name drop list in the Color
Palette tab.
2. Click the Contextual Menu button and select Palette > Rename Palette to give
the new palette a customized name. The Rename dialog box opens.
3. Type a new name for the palette in the Palette Name field and click OK. The new
name for the selected palette appears in the Name drop-list.
See Also
Copying a Palette on page 168
Deleting a Palette
When you no longer need a palette, or any of its styles, you can delete it. When you
delete a palette, any zones or lines you painted with the colors in the palette turn bright
red. You can repaint the lines and zones using either a new palette or an existing
palette.
To delete a palette:
1. Select the palette you want to delete from the Name drop list in the Color Palette
tab.
2. Click the Contextual Menu button and select Palette > Delete Palette from the
pop-up menu. A confirmation dialog box opens.
3. Decide if you really want to delete the selected palette.
• Click Yes to delete the selected palette and all of its palette styles.
• Click No to cancel the delete palette command.
Toon Boom Studio removes the selected palette from the current animation set. The
other palettes in the animation set are not affected.
170
See Also
Copying a Palette on page 168
Creating Multiple Palette Styles

A palette includes one or more palette styles. After you create the swatches in a palette
style, you can make multiple copies of this palette style and customize them to suit
different light and color settings.
Multiple palette styles allow you to adjust a character’s colors instantly instead of
recoloring each swatch.
When you switch palette styles Toon Boom Studio automatically repaints those zones
with the same properties of the active palette style. When you export your animation,
the active palette style is used.
When you add a color swatch to one palette style, Toon Boom Studio automatically
adds it to all the palette styles in the current palette. This allows you to create different
color styles for a single drawing, while keeping the same swatches in each style.
Two styles - one brightly

colored for a daytime
scene, the other has dull
colors for the same
scene in the rain.
To create a new palette style in a set:

1. In the Color Palette tab, select the palette and palette style you want to use to
create the new style.
171
2. Click the Contextual Menu button and select Style > Duplicate Style from the
pop-up menu.
A new palette style appears in the Palette style drop-list with a default name
(Style#). The copied style contains all swatches in the original palette style.
3. Customize the color swatches as necessary.
Remember that you can change the color properties of a swatch in a palette style
without changing the properties of the same swatch in the other palette styles.
If you attempt to change the name of a swatch, or add a new swatch, all the styles in
the palette reflect this change as well.
The palette style can be different for each scene in your project. For example, you can
use a palette style for a character for a sunny daytime scene, and another palette style
for a scene in which it is raining. You can apply the default style to the daytime scene,
but you may want to apply a darker palette style to the rainy scene within the same
project.
To change the palette style used in a specific scene:

1. Select Window > Scene Manager.
2. In the Scene Manager window, select the scene to which you want to apply the
palette style.
3. Click the Contextual Menu button and select Make Current to activate the
scene.
4. In the Color Palette tab, select the palette style you want to apply to the scene
from the Style drop list.
See Also
Renaming a Palette Style on page 172
Deleting a Palette Style on page 173
Renaming a Palette Style

When you create a palette style, Toon Boom Studio assigns a default name to it. You
can rename the palette style to give it a more descriptive name.
For example, if you had a character that had scenes in three different light settings, you
could create three palette styles that each contain the same number of color swatches
172
with the same names, but with different color properties based on each type of light
setting.
To rename a palette style:

1. Select the palette style you want to rename from the Style drop list in the Color
Palette tab.
2. Click the Contextual Menu button and select Style > Rename Style to give the
palette style a new name. The Rename dialog box opens.
You can also select this command by control-clicking the top section of the Color
Palette tab and selecting Style > Rename from pop-up menu.
3. Type a new name for the palette style in the Style Name field and click OK. The
new name for the selected palette style appears in the Palette style drop-list.
See Also
Deleting a Palette Style

When you no longer need a palette style, you can delete it. However, you cannot delete
the last style in a palette. Your only option is to delete the entire palette, deleting all the
styles in it.
For example, let’s say you had a scene called Dusk that required the color swatches to
have more red in them. You would have created a palette style for each of your
characters called Dusk that had slightly redder colors. As your project evolves, you
decide to drop the Dusk scene completely. Because you don’t really need the Dusk
palette style anymore, you can delete it from the palette.
Deleting a palette style from a palette does not affect any of the other styles in the set.
However, the zones and line art in your drawing will now use the colors in the next
available palette style.
To delete a palette style:

1. Select the palette style you want to delete from the Style drop list in the Color
Palette tab.
2. Click the Contextual Menu button and select Style > Delete Style.
Toon Boom Studio removes the selected style and its associated color swatches
from the current palette and applies the swatch properties of the active style to
the drawings that use them.
173
See Also
Renaming a Palette Style on page 172
Offsetting Colors in a Palette Style

Toon Boom Studioprovides you with a powerful feature for tinting the color properties
of all swatches in a palette style simultaneously.
Using the Tint Offset dialog box you can add or subtract RGB/HSB and Alpha
(transparency) values from all of the swatches in a selected palette style to suit a
specific situation. This eliminates the need to make time consuming individual
adjustments to each swatch, removes the possibility of inconsistent results, and
provides uniform color adjustment.
Normal settings before

adjusting RGB/HSB and
Alpha (transparency) values.
Changing the offset properties adjusts the color properties of the swatches in the
current palette style.
For example, you can increase the amount of red in a palette, which makes reds redder
and blues more purple.
174
Results of setting the

Red values to minimum
or maximum.
If you want to mix a new color into a palette style, you must use the Tint Blend dialog
box.
To tint all of the colors in a palette style:

1. Select the palette and the palette style you want to modify from the Color Palette
tab.
2. Click the Contextual Menu button and select Style > Tint Offset. The Tint
Offset dialog box opens.
3. Select the type of adjustment you want to make to the palette style. You have two
choices:
• RGB: adjusts the Red, Green, and Blue values in the current palette.
• HSB: adjusts the Hue, Saturation, and Brightness values in the current
palette.
4. Using the sliders/fields, adjust the RGB or HSB values in the current palette.
As you make adjustments in this dialog box, the swatches in the current palette
style change as well as the drawings that use those swatches, but the changes only
become permanent when you click OK.
175
You can also use the Alpha slider/field to adjust the amount of transparency in
the current palette style colors.
Reducing the Alpha value alters the transparency.
5. Use the Blending slider to change the intensity of the current RGB/HSB and
Alpha values by a selected percentage.
6. Click OK when done.
See Also
Blending a Color into a Palette Style on page 176
Blending a Color into a Palette Style

You can use the Tint Blend dialog box to blend a specific amount of a selected color into
the swatches in a palette style.
For example, if a character is standing close to a fire, blend orange into the character’s
palette style to show the firelight reflecting off the character’s body and clothing.
The difference between tint blend and tint offset is that when you use the Tint Offset
command, you are increasing or decreasing the existing RGB/HSB/Alpha values of
the swatches in a palette style. The Blend command add a new color into all the
swatches in the palette style.
176
To blend a selected color into the selected palette style:
1. Select the palette and palette style you want to modify from the Color Palette tab.
2. Click the Contextual Menu button and select Style > Tint Blend. The Tint
Blend dialog box opens.
3. Select the type of adjustment you want to make to the palette style. You have two
choices:
• RGB: adjusts the Red, Green, and Blue values in the current palette.
• HSB: adjusts the Hue, Saturation, and Brightness values in the current
palette.
4. Use the RGB/HSB sliders and the Alpha slider/field, select the type of color you
want to mix with the current palette style.
As you make adjustments in this dialog box, the swatches in the current palette
style change as well as the drawings that use those swatches, but the changes only
become permanent when you click OK.
177
5. Use the Blending slider/field to select the percentage of the blend color you want
to add to the current palette style.
Zero blend used. Adds 50% of the selected Adds 100% of the selected
color to the swatches. color to the swatches.
6. Click OK to permanently blend the selected color into the swatches in the current
palette style.
See Also
Offsetting Colors in a Palette Style on page 174
Importing and Exporting Palettes

Building color palettes often involves a thoughtful selection of colors and ways to
organize them. After creating these palettes, you may want to use them in other
projects. Toon Boom Studio allows you to easily import palettes from other projects
into your current one. You can also prepare a palette file for export from one or more
palettes that you select from your current project.
A palette file contains:
• The name of each stored palette
• All palette styles in each palette
• All color swatches associated with each palette
Importing Palettes
You can import palettes from other projects into your current project. You can use any
TBCP file located in your file directory.
178
To import color palettes into your scene:
1. Click the Color Palette tab.
2. Click the Contextual Menu button and select Palette > Import Palette.
The Open dialog box appears.
3. Choose the color palette file (TBCP file format) that you want to import.
4. Click Open.
The dialog box closes and the palettes are imported. Select the Name drop-list in
the Color Palette tab to see the updated list.
See Also
Exporting Palettes on page 179
Exporting Palettes
You can export one or more palettes in the current scene to a single palette file (TBCP
file format), allowing you to re-use them in other projects.
To export color palettes from your scene:

1. Click the Color Palette tab.
2. Click the Contextual Menu button and select Palette > Export Palette.
The Export Palette dialog box lists all palettes in the current scene.
3. Select one or more palettes in the list. You can press the Select All button if you
want to include all palettes in the export.
179
4. In the File text field, enter the location and file name of the palette file you will
export. You can use the Browse button to navigate to the directory you want to
use.
5. Click Export to create the color palette file.
See Also
Importing Palettes on page 178
180
Chapter 5
Adding Sound
This chapter explains how to add sound tracks to your movie. It also explains
how to automatically generate a lip chart.
• Importing Sounds on page 182
• Editing Sounds on page 185
• Lip Synching on page 192
Toon Boom Studio Express V3 User Guide
Importing Sounds
When you decide that you want to add sound to your movie, you must first prepare
this sound outside Toon Boom Studio. Then in Toon Boom Studio, you must add a
Sound element, which organizes sound files in your animation.
A sound will play in the movie until it reaches the end of the file or a stop frame you
create in the Sound Element Editor. If the sound extends into multiple scenes it will
keep playing.
You can import as many sound files as you like, just be sure to consider the constraints
of your audience if you will be delivering your movies over the Internet - the more
sounds you add, the larger the file size of your final movie.
Toon Boom Studio import, exports and plays sounds using QuickTime. Toon Boom
Studio only supports the sound formats recognized by QuickTime, with one exception:
Flash ADPCM format, which we support natively.
To import sound to your scene:

1. Select Element > Add > Sound. An empty sound element appears in the
Exposure Sheet window and Timeline window.
2. In the Exposure Sheet window, right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS)

the cell at the frame number where you want the sound to start playing and select
Import Sound File from the pop-up menu. The Open dialog box opens.
3. Select the sound file you want to use in your scene and click Open.
If the sound file doesn’t already exist in your animation, Toon Boom Studio
copies the file from its present location to the Sound folder in your animation set
folder.
The sound file now appears in the cell you selected. The entire name of the file appears
in the cell, so you should try to keep the file name short so you can see it easily in the
cell.
182
Chapter 5: Adding Sound
You can also import sounds in the Sound Element Editor.

1. Select the sound element and select Element > Edit Sound. The Sound Ele-
ment Editor opens.
2. Click Import. The file browser opens.
3. Select the sound you want to import and click Open.
For more information on the Sound Element Editor, see Editing Sounds on page 185.
To add a new Sound element and import a sound file into your scene:
2. Select the sound file you want to import and confirm your selection.
A new Sound element is created and the sound file begins in the cell at the current
frame.
See Also
Editing Sounds on page 185
Event and Streamed Sounds

You can set up your sounds to be either streamed or event sounds when they are
exported to the Adobe Flash format.
There are two major distinctions between event and stream sounds in the Adobe Flash
file:
• Downloading
D Event sounds are downloaded by the Adobe Flash player before they
play.
D Event sounds are reusable. Once downloaded, the Adobe Flash player
can play the sound repeatedly without downloading it again. This is not
possible with streamed sound.
D Streamed sound plays as it arrives.
D Streamed sound samples are broken into small bits and inserted between
the video frame. This allows the Adobe Flash player to start to play before
receiving the full sound track which is helpful for a long sound track (like
background music).
183
• Synchronization
D Streamed sounds are kept synchronized with the video by the Adobe
Flash player. The player drops frames if necessary, for example, if the
video renderer is too slow and falls behind the sound track.
D Event sounds are not synchronized with video. After a while, an event
sound may fall out of sync with the video.
Because streamed sounds are more likely to be synchronized with the images in your
animation, lip sync sounds should be set to stream. If you set more than one sound to
stream, they will be mixed together and exported as one, streamed sound.
To stream the sounds in an element:

1. Select the Sound element and select Element > Edit Sound. The Sound Element
Editor opens.
2. Select the Streamed checkbox. This toggles on and off the streaming sound
option. If the option is not selected, the sound is set as an event sound.
Here’s the Streamed

checkbox.
See Also
Playing the Sound in Your Animation

After you’ve added sounds to your scene, you can preview the scene with all the
sounds in sync. This helps you make any adjustments necessary to keep your sound
synchronized with the action in your scene.
To play sound only:

1. In the Exposure Sheet window, right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS)
on the cell containing the sound.
2. Select Play from the pop-up menu.
184
3. To stop the sound playback, right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) the
same cell and select Stop from the pop-up menu.
You can use the Interactive Playback to playback the sound in a scene. However,
because the scene may not playback in real time, the sound may be out-of-sync with
the action.
See Also
Editing Sounds
The Sound Element Editor makes it possible for you to edit sounds created outside of
Toon Boom Studio and imported into the movie.
Sound Element
panel
Lip sync
preview
images
Current Sound
panel
The Sound Element Editor consists of three main elements.

• The Sound Element panel displays the waveform of all sound files in the
element.
• The Current Sound panel displays the waveform of the selected sound so that
you can edit its properties.
• The Lip sync preview images appear when you lip sync a sound.
185
In the Sound Element Editor, you can:
• Adjust the start frame/time of a sound.
• Cut sections from the start and end of the sound.
• Adjust the volume of a sound clip and create fade envelopes.
• Generate lip charts.
• Set the sound element to Streamed or Event sound.
See Also
Changing the Lip Assignment of a Sound on page 194
Trimming the Start and End of a Sound File on page 187
Fading the Sound In and Out on page 189
Changing the Start or End Frame of a

Sound
To synchronize your sound with specific images in your animation, you must set a
start frame. If you want to make sure the sound ends by a certain frame, you must set
an end frame.
To change start or end frame of a sound:

1. Select Element > Edit Sound. The Sound Element Editor dialog box opens.
2. Select the sound you want from the Sound Element panel. To distinguish one
sound file from another, check the frame numbers that appear above the sound
waves or select a sound wave and click the Play button in the Current Sound
panel (only the selected sound plays).
3. Using the Sound Element panel, drag the selected clip to the frame position
where you want it to start playing.
The start and end

frames appear in
the green and
yellow tabs.
You can only move the clip to a section that does not already contain a clip; you
cannot overlap two clips in the same element.
186
4. To change the end frame, drag the yellow marker at the end of the waveform to
the frame position.
5. To hear how all of the clips fit together in the element, click the Play button in
the Sound Element panel.
If you only want to hear the selected clip, click the Play button in the Current
Sound panel.
6. Click OK when done. The exposure sheet/timeline should now display the sound
clip at the start frame you selected.
See Also
Importing Sounds on page 182
Trimming the Start and End of a Sound File

If you want to play only a section of a sound file, you can use the Sound Element Editor
dialog box to select the exact part you want to use.
For example, let’s say there is a bit of noise at the start of the sound. You can use the
Sound Element Editor to cut the noise at the start of the sound file.
The Sound Element Editor does not change the original sound file; it only plays a
section of it, ignoring the rest. This allows you to reuse the full sound in other scenes
in the movie. However, this means that the entire sound file is included on export. So
if must be considerate of file size, it is better to edit sound files completely in a sound
editor before you bring them into Toon Boom Studio.
Toon Boom Studio does not change the sound to fit into the number of frames you
select. If the number of frames you select is longer than the played sound, no sound is
heard from that point on.
To select the section of a sound file to play in your scene:

Editor dialog box opens.
2. Select the sound you want to work on from the Sound Element panel.
To distinguish one sound file from another, check the frame numbers that appear
above the sound waves or select a sound wave and click the Play button in the
Current Sound panel (only the select sound will play).
187
3. Using the Current Sound panel, you can decide which part of the file you want to
play by dragging the left and right boundaries of the selection area.
See Also
Looping a Sound
To repeat a sound, you specify the number of times you want it to loop in the Sound
Element Editor.
To loop a sound:
Editor opens.
2. From the Sound Element panel, select the sound file you want to loop.
3. In the Current Sound panel, type the number of time you want the sound to play
in the Number of Loops field.
4. Click OK to close the dialog box.
188
The looped sounds appear washed-out to Enter the number of loops

distinguish them from the original. here.
When you loop a sound, the looped sections fill the frames in the Sound element until
they encounter the next sound in the column, at which point the sound cuts out.
See Also
Fading the Sound In and Out

You can modify the volume throughout a sound clip by adjusting the fade-in and fade-
out times; these are also known as envelopes.When you play the sound clip the volume
adjusts over time to fade the sound. The fades only affect the playback; the original
sound file is not affected.
To adjust the fade in/out effect on a sound clip:

Editor dialog box opens.
2. In the Sound Element panel, select the sound you want to work on. A more
detailed version of the selected sound appears in the Current Sound panel.
3. In the Current Sound panel, click the waveform to add an envelope marker.
4. Drag the envelope markers to adjust the volume at each frame and the time of the
transition.The line from the edge of the clip to the envelope marker identifies how
the volume either increases (fades-in) or decreases (fades-out) over time.
189
Envelope marker
You can also adjust the volume (mix) sound in the Sound Element Editor.
1. In the Sound Element panel, select the sound whose volume you want to
adjust.
2. In the Current Sound panel, drag the volume slider to the new level.
See Also
Sound Scrubbing on page 193
Viewing the Waveform in the Exposure

Sheet
When you insert a sound file in your sound element and activate the Thumbnail view,
the sound element displays a waveform to represent the sound file. The waveform
represents the sound as it rises and falls in volume. If there is no sound in the file, the
waveform appears as a straight line.
You can use the waveform as a guide to determine when a certain sound effect occurs.
For example, if you have a sound effect of a rooster crowing, you can analyze the
sound’s waveform to determine the initial “cock-a-doodle-doo” sound and sync it to
the drawings of the rooster crowing.
If you look at the waveform of the sound effect, you’ll notice the volume increases as
the size of the waveform increases. You can use the size of the waveform as a guide to
sync the sound effect with the action in your scene.
To view or hide the waveform of the sound element:
• Click the Toggle Thumbnails button in the Exposure Sheet window.

There are two viewing modes that apply to sound columns when you activate the
element thumbnails, depending on if you apply a Lip Sync function.
190
• Lip Sync active: the sound cells display the lip sync letter or a graphic.
• Lip Sync inactive: the sound cells display the file name or a waveform.
When a lip sync is applied to the cells in a sound element, you can no longer view the
waveform or the file name. If you want to view its waveform again, control-click the
sound cell and deselect the Show Lip Sync option in the pop-up menu.
See Also
Customizing the Playback Range

If you want to hear a specific section of the sound element, you can adjust the playback
range in the Sound Element Editor to start or stop at specific frames. This customized
playback range does not affect the actual sound in the Sound element.
The playback start/

end range markers
To change the playback range in the Sound Element Editor dialog box:
• Drag the start or end range markers in the Sound Element panel to the
boundary frames you want.
When you press Play to playback your sound in the Sound Element
Editor, it only plays the sound that exists between the two markers.
See Also
191
Lip Synching
It can be a difficult task to shape a characters mouth so that it matches the sound at the
right frame. To solve this problem Toon Boom Studio provides you with the lip sync
feature which analyses the contents of a sound element and generates a lip chart based
on the eight animation phonemes (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and X, which represents silence).
You can refer to the lip chart positions as you draw the shape of you character’s mouth.
All the possible lip position graphics

appear below the lip sync preview image
in the Sound Element Editor dialog box.
To generate a lip chart for a sound from the Exposure Sheet:

1. In the Exposure Sheet, right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) the
sound you want to affect and select Show Lip Sync from the pop-up menu. A
checkmark appears next to the command to show that it is active.
Toon Boom Studio analyzes the selected sound clips and assigns a lip sync letter
to each sound cell. All the cells that have a sound file in them display a cartoon
face that mimic the sound at that specific frame.
2. To show/hide the lip sync images that represent the lip position at each frame,
click the Contextual Menu button and select View > Thumbnails.
To generate a lip chart for a sound using the Sound Element Editor:
Editor opens.
2. In Sound Element panel, select the waveform you want to generate the lip chart
for.
3. Click Lip-sync. A progress bar appears as Toon Boom Studio analyzes the
selected sound clips and assigns a lip sync letter to each sound cell.
Each lip chart image displays a letter which corresponds to the sound cell shown in the
exposure sheet.
See Also
Viewing the Waveform in the Exposure Sheet on page 190
192
Sound Scrubbing
Toon Boom Studio uses a process known as Sound Scrubbing to let you hear sound in
real-time while you move the playback pointer forward or backwards. This is very
useful for fine tuning the lip sync process.
You can scrub sounds from the Sound Element Editor or from the Timeline window.
When you scrub the sound from the Timeline, all sounds present at a frame will play.
To scrub a sound from the Sound Element Editor:

Editor opens.
2. In the Sound Element panel, select the waveform you want to scrub.
3. Below the Current Sound panel, select the Enable Scrubbing option. This option
sets the red markers in scrub mode.
4. Drag the red playback marker and hold the left mouse button down.
You can play the sound forwards or backwards depending on the direction you
drag the mouse.
5. To stop the playback, release the mouse button.
193
To scrub a sound from the Timeline window:
1. To scrub a sound file from the Timeline, you must turn on sound playback and
scrubbing.
• Select Play > Turn Sound Playback On.
• Select Play > Turn Sound Scrubbing On.
2. Drag the red frame marker at the top of the Timeline window along to hear the
sound at each frame.
Drag the red frame slider to
hear the sound at each
frame.
Note that there will be no sound playback if you go beyond the last drawings and
images in the scene.
See Also
Swapping Drawings in an Element on page 351
Changing the Lip Assignment of a Sound

You can change the lip position assigned to a frame if you think another lip position
would be more appropriate.
For example, let’s say you have a character who says nothing for 10 frames inbetween
two speeches. Toon Boom Studio would normally assign an X image for the silence
period.
If you want your character to let his mouth hang open in astonishment for these 10
frames, you could change the lip assignment for these 10 frames from an X to an F.
To change the lip assignment of a sound in the Exposure Sheet:

1. Right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) the cell that contains the lip
position you want to change.
194
2. From the Lip Sync menu, select the letter that reflects the lip position you want to
use for that sound.
Toon Boom Studio changes the lip chart to reflect the new lip assignment. You can also
change the lip assignment of a sound in the Sound Element Editor.
To change the lip assignment of a sound from the Sound Element Editor:
Editor opens.
2. In the Sound Element panel, drag the frame slider to the frame you want to
change the lip assignment on.
In the Lip Sync image area, the image on top represents the lip position assigned
to the current frame.
3. To change the image assigned to the frame, click the image of the lip position you
want from below the preview image.
The preview image changes to the lip image you select.
All the possible lip position graphics

appear below the lip sync preview
image in the Sound Element Editor
dialog box.
See Also
Adding Lip Sync Notes on page 197
Sound Scrubbing on page 193
Automatically Mapping Lip Sync Drawings on page 196
195
Automatically Mapping Lip Sync Drawings

Toon Boom Studio can automatically map drawings in an element to the lip chart you
generated on a sound. This can save you lots of time when you are lip syncing a voice
track. In Lip Sync Mapping dialog box, you identify each phoneme drawing for a
character and then Toon Boom Studio automatically labels all of the cells in the
character’s element with the appropriate label for each phoneme drawing.
After you automatically map lip sync drawings to your element, you may scrub the
sound and fine-tune the mappings. You can then use the Cells tab to swap a lip
drawing with another one in the same element. See “Swapping Drawings in an
Element” on page 351.
To automatically map lip sync drawings to a lip chart:

1. In a lip-synced sound element, right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS)
the Sound element header and select Modify Lip Sync Mapping.
The Lip sync mapping dialog box opens.

2. From the Destination element drop-list, select the element that contains the lip
positions for the character’s voice track.
3. In the Mapping panel, type the drawing name in the field to the right of the
phoneme it represents. If your drawings are already named with the phoneme
letters, you don’t have to do anything.
196
Type the drawing name in the

field to the right of the mapping
letter
This feature will save you even

more time if you name your
drawings with letters of the eight
phonemes A, B, C, D, E, F, G,
and X (represents silence).
4. Click OK. The dialog box closes. If you scroll through the element with the lip
positions, you’ll see that all of the lip drawings have been mapped to the
phonemes in the voice track.
If you make any changes to the voice track, you must remap the drawings to the
appropriate phonemes. The mapping is not updated automatically.
See Also
Adding Lip Sync Notes

To identify the different sections of your sound element, you can add lip sync notes to
the lip chart.
Lip sync notes are not the same as cell or element notes. Lip sync notes appear directly
in the sound element cell in the Exposure Sheet window.
Adding lip sync notes does not change the lip assignment at the frame.
To add lip sync notes to your sound element:

1. In the Sound element, double-click the sound cell you want to affect. The cell
becomes editable.
197
2. Type the note text you want to appear with the lip sync image and press [Enter]
(Windows) or [Return] (MacOS). The next cell becomes editable.
If you don’t want to edit the next cell, click outside of the cell. If you want to
cancel the note change, press [Esc].
The lip sync note appears in the sound element in the Exposure Sheet window and
appears in the Sound Element Editor.
See Also
Adding Element/Cell Notes on page 323
Recomputing the Lip Chart

When you generate the lip chart for a sound in a sound element, you can either accept
the lip positions assigned by Toon Boom Studio or assign your own lip sync images.
However, if you change the sound’s start frame or reassign its lip position, you can
reanalyze the sound and regenerate the lip chart for it. This erases any manual
modifications you may have made to the lip assignments in the lip chart.
To recompute the lip chart for a selected sound from a Sound column:
1. In a Sound element, right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) a cell that
contains the sound file you want to recompute the lip sync on.
2. Select Recompute Lip-sync from the pop-up menu. The lip assignment for each
frame is recomputed, erasing any modifications you may have made.
To recompute the lip chart for a selected sound from the Sound Element Editor:
1. Click the sound in the Sound element panel in the Sound Element Editor.
2. Click Lip-sync. The lip assignment for each frame is recomputed, erasing any
modifications you may have made.
Regenerating the lip chart erases any customized assignments you make.
See Also
Adding Lip Sync Notes on page 197
198
Chapter 6
Laying Out Elements in 3D Space
This chapter explains some of the basic concepts of the 3D scene space and
how you can use it to place and adjust your elements.
• Basic Sceneplanning Concepts on page 200
• Repositioning Elements on page 207
• Scaling Elements on page 211
• Rotating Elements on page 216
Basic Sceneplanning Concepts

With the Sceneplanning views, Toon Boom Studio has added a new dimension to the
layout process by allowing you to plan your 2D scenes in a 3D space.
The 3D space is described in terms of three planes:
• EW: maps the horizontal plane in terms of East and West, this is the X
coordinate.
• NS: maps the vertical plane in terms of North and South, this is the Y
coordinate.
• FB maps the depth of the plane in terms of Front and Back, this is the Z
coordinate.
When you move, rotate, or scale your 2D elements in the 3D space, Toon Boom Studio
automatically applies the changes to all of the contents in the element.
See Also
Selecting Elements on page 204
Using the View Windows

As you choreograph the elements in your scene, you need to be able to see where your
elements appear in each frame of the scene.
Toon Boom Studio provides you with three windows that display your elements from
three unique perspectives.
• Camera View: (default) displays the scene from the camera’s perspective.
200
Chapter 6: Laying Out Elements in 3D Space
Use this view to change an element’s east, west, north, south, front, and back
position, as well as its scale size, and rotation angle.
W E
N
• Top View: displays the scene from a top-down view. Elements appear as
lines (imagine looking at an animation cel from the top) and the camera field
of view appears as an angle.
Use this view to change an element’s east, west, front, and back position.
W E
B
F
• Side View: displays the scene from the side. Elements appear as lines
(imagine looking at an animation cel from the side) and the camera field of
view appears as an angle.
201
Use this view to change an element’s north, south, front, and back position.
F B
S
You can use these View windows to place your elements in the scene and to map their
actions over time. You can also use these windows to determine the size and position
of the camera that records the action in your scene.
See Also
Zooming and Panning View Windows

As you work with your elements in your View windows, you may need to see other
parts of the scene space not in the camera’s field of view. Although all the action is
taking place within the confines of the active camera’s field of view, you can place
other elements outside the camera to bring them in later when needed.
Camera’s current field

of view frame
Changing the section of the viewable scene space doesn’t actually change anything in
the scene itself; it only changes what you are currently seeing in the View window.
202
To pan to another section of the scene space, you have these options:
• Select Tools > Grabber and use the Grabber tool to pan the window. You
can also activate the Grabber tool from the Drawing Tools toolbar.
• Click the View window to activate it and press [Spacebar]. Click and drag the
scene space around to make other parts of it visible.
• Use the scroll bars in the View window to scroll the scene space.
To zoom in, you have these options:

• Click the View window to activate it and press the [X] key on your keyboard.
• Select View > Zoom In.
• Select Tools > Zoom and click the area you want to zoom in by clicking the
Zoom tool.
To zoom out, you have these options:

• Click the View window to activate it and press the [Z] key.
• Select View > Zoom Out.
• Press [Command] (Mac) or [Alt] (Windows) and then click the View window
with the Zoom tool.
See Also
Resetting the Scene View on page 204
Switching Views on page 203
Repositioning Elements on page 207
Switching Views
If you zoom or pan across your View window, you can switch back and forth between
the current view and a second view set up.
To switch the active view, you have these options:
• Select View > Switch Active View. Or click the Switch Active View
button on the bottom left corner of the window.
• Press the [B] key on your keyboard to toggle between the views.
See Also
Using the View Windows on page 200
Zooming and Panning View Windows on page 202
203
Resetting the Scene View

If you change the focus of the View window to view other parts of the scene space, you
may want to return to the default view, which is based on the camera size and position.
To reset the view focus, you have three choices:

• Select View > Reset Zoom to return to the default zoom value.
• Select View > Reset View or click the Reset View button.
This option allows you to have a better idea of what the active camera is
viewing in the scene.
• Click the Recenter View button on the bottom left corner of the window to
reset your view to the center of the active camera.
The view in the current View window recenters itself based on the camera
position, but it does not reset the zoom level
The Top and Side View windows use a fixed viewpoint in the center marked by a cross.
When you click the Reset View button or the Recenter View button, Toon Boom
Studio resets the windows to that fixed position, no matter where the camera is located
in the scene space.
See Also
Using the View Windows on page 200
Selecting Elements
When you’re ready to start choreographing your scene, you need to be able to select
the elements you want to change.
You can select elements in the:
• Camera View, Top View and Side View windows
• Timeline window
All the images at the current frame appear in full-color in the Camera View
window. A selected element appears highlighted.
How you select your element depends on the type of change you want to make:
• Single element
• Multiple elements
To select a single element in the Camera View, Top View or Side View windows:
1. Select Tools > Sceneplanning Tools > Select to activate the Select tool.
204
2. Click the element. The selected element appears highlighted in all the View
windows and the Timeline window.
Horizon
Horizon Sea Wave
Wave
Wave Sea
Sea Horizon
Selected elements and their relative

positions in the View windows
To select multiple elements in the Timeline window:

• [Command]-click (Mac) or [Alt]-click (Windows) element names in the
Timeline window to select element in any order.
• Click an element name in the Timeline window and [Shift]-click another
element name to select both elements and all elements positioned between
them.
• To select all the elements, select the Timeline window and select Edit >
Select All.
• To deselect all the elements, select Edit > Deselect All or simply click the
Select tool in an empty space in the Camera View, Top View, Side View, or
Timeline windows.
You can then change their scene timing, layer order, and attach/detach them from
pegs.
205
You can also use the following commands in the Element > Arrange menu to select
elements in the Timeline:
• Select Parent: selects the element that the current element is attached to. For
example, if you have a drawing element selected that happens to be attached
to a peg, this command would select the peg.
• Select Children: selects all the elements attached to the current element.
• Select Child: selects the element attached to the current element.
• Select Previous Brother: selects the previous element at the same level as the
current element.
• Select Next Brother: selects the next element at the same level as the current
element.
See Also
Adding Peg Elements and Attaching Child Elements on page 223
206
Repositioning Elements
When you first load a scene in a Sceneplanning view window, all of your elements
appear as they were drawn in the Drawing View window with the initial position of
zero fields NS, zero fields EW, and zero fields FB within the 3D scene space.
Using the EW (X), NS (Y), and FB (Z) coordinates you can place your elements at
different distances in depth from the camera and from each other, adding a three
dimensional effect to your two-dimensional animation.
This is what you see in the

Camera field of view (FOV).
Camera View window displays the NS/EW/FB offset positions, but you can also use
the Side View and Top View windows to reposition elements:
• Top View window: displays the EW and FB positions.
• Side View window: displays the NS and FB positions.
Changing an element’s position affects all the contents in that element. If you want to
change an element’s properties over time, you need to attach it to a peg.
207
See Also
Changing the NS/EW Position of an Element on page 208
Changing the FB Position of an Element on page 209
Defining an Element’s Layering Order on page 210
Animating Elements with Pegs on page 222
Changing the NS/EW Position of an Element

You can use the Camera View window or the Properties tab to change the NS/EW
position of an element.
As you change the position of

an element, the values in the
Offset fields change.
You can use the

Select tool in the
Sceneplanning
toolset to move
the drawing
object horizontally
and vertically in
3D space.
To change the NS/EW position of an element:

1. Select the element you want to reposition using one of the following methods:
• Select the element in the Timeline window.
• Select Tools > Sceneplanning Tools > Select or click the Select tool on the
Scene Operation Tools toolbar and click the element in the Camera View
window.
208
2. To change the NS/EW position, you have the following choices:
• To use the mouse to change the NS/EW position, move the pointer over the
element so that it changes to and drag the element to its new position.
• To nudge selected elements, you can also use the arrow keys. Press [Shift] if
you want to move the element in larger increments.
• To use an exact NS/EW position, type the values in the first Offset fields in
the Properties dialog box (select Window > Properties).
D To change the NS position, type the offset value in the left field followed
by its direction (N for north or S for south).
D To change the EW position, type the offset value in the right field
followed by its direction (E for east or W for west).
See Also
Showing/Hiding Elements on page 319
Changing the FB Position of an Element

You can change the FB position of an element visually in the Top View or Side View
windows. You can also use a keyboard shortcut and change the FB position of elements
in the Camera View window. All changes to the position of an element appear in the
Properties window for the element.
The Top View and Side View

windows show you the
relative front/back position of
all elements in your scene.
To offset the FB position of an element:

1. Select the element you want to reposition using one of the following methods:
Scene Operation Tools toolbar and click the element in the View window.
209
2. To offset the FB position, you have the following choices:
• In the Top View or Side View window, move the pointer over the element so
that it changes to and drag the element to its new position.
• In the Camera View window, you can use the mouse to change the FB
position of the element. Move the pointer over the element and press [Alt]
(Windows) or [Option] (MacOS) so that it changes to an up/down arrow .
Drag the element to its new position.
D Dragging the mouse upwards moves the element backward in space.
D Dragging the mouse downwards moves the element forward in space.
If you open the Properties dialog box (select Window > Properties), you can
see the FB position value in the last Offset field.
• To use an exact FB position, make sure the Properties dialog box is active
(select Window > Properties) and type the values in the last Offset field.
Type the Front/Back value in the last field followed by its direction (F for
forward or B for backward).
See Also
Defining an Element’s Layering Order

To make an element appear in front of or behind all the elements in your scene, you
can tag that element as either a Foreground or Background element.
For example, if you have a background image, you can tag the element as a
Background element and Toon Boom Studio will always place it behind all the other
elements, even if another element’s Front/Back position places it behind the
background element.
To select the element type:

1. Select an element in either the View windows or the Timeline window.
210
2. Select the element type from the Type drop-list in the Properties window (select
Window > Properties to display this window). You have the following choices:
• Normal (default): the layer order is determined by the order of the elements
in the Timeline window and its Front/Back position.
• Foreground: this type of element will always appear in front of other
elements no matter what their Front/Back position is.
• Background: this type of element will always appear behind other elements
no matter what their Front/Back position is.
When you have two or more Foreground/Background elements, their order in the
Timeline window determines their final layer order.
See Also
Scaling Elements
When you open the Camera View window for the first time, drawings appear at the
size at which you drew them. You can change an element’s height and width using the
Select tool, which resizes all of the contents in the selected element.
You can scale an element by:
• dragging the scale handles
• entering specific values
To scale an element over time, you must use the Scale tool. Refer to Animating Size
Changes with the Scale Tool on page 245 for more information.
211
Drag a scale
handle to rescale
in any direction.
Check this box to force

proportional scaling.
Drag a scale
handle to rescale
in any direction.
To scale without
proportion, uncheck
this box.
To scale an element using the scale handles:

1. Select Window > Camera View if the Camera View is not yet open.
2. Select the element you want to scale using one of the following methods:
Scene Operation Tools toolbar and click the element in the View window.
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3. Place the mouse pointer over one of the scale handles.
Scale handles located

in a corner are
bidirectional; handles at
a midpoint only scale
horizontally or vertically.
4. Drag one of the scale handles in the direction you want to rescale.
Dragging away from the element scales it up and dragging toward the element
scales it down. If you drag the handles beyond the scale borders, the element’s
drawings flip over.
D Top-right corner handle: changes the height and width values at the same
time. If you press [Shift], you can rescale the element proportionally.
D Top-center handle: changes the height value.
D Side-center handle: changes the width value.
To change the size of an element over time, you must attach it to a peg.
To scale an element with specific values:

1. Select Window > Properties to open the Properties dialog box. You can see the
size scale values change in the Scale fields.
2. Type the size values in the Scale fields in the Properties dialog box.
Scale fields Proportional Scale
D To change the height of the element, type the height value in the left Scale
field.
D To change the width of the element, type the width value in the right
Scale field.
D To change the height and width of an element proportionally, select the
Keep Proportions checkbox. When you type one value in the vertical
Scale field, Toon Boom Studio adjusts the horizontal value automatically
and the horizontal value field is greyed out.
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See Also
Animating Size Changes with the Scale Tool on page 245
Changing the Scale Pivot Point Position

The scale pivot point allows you to change the center of the scaling. The pivot point is
located at the center of the scale grid by default.
To change the position of the scale pivot
point, activate the Scale tool, and change the
pivot point, highlighted in green.
The default position for the pivot point is the
center position of the grid, not the drawing.
When you resize the element, all four sides can move in the direction you drag the
resize handles. Only the centre of the drawing stays in place.
When the pivot point is repositioned only the point at the location stays in place; all
other points move in relation to it. For example, with the pivot point on the left middle-
side, only the three opposite sides will move if you resize the object.
pivot point The blue pivot that

appears when using the
Select tool is a
temporary pivot point.
You can use it as a
reference.
Repositioning an element’s pivot point can be useful if you want to resize an element,
but you don’t want to change its horizontal or vertical position in the scene.
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You can move the scale pivot point by:
• dragging the scale pivot point
To change the scale pivot point:

1. Select the element using one of the following methods:
Scene Operation Tools toolbar, and click the element in a Sceneplanning
view window.
2. Select Tools > Sceneplanning Tools > Scale or click the Scale tool on the
Scene Operation Tools toolbar.
This is the selection box for the Scale
tool. Activate it to reposition the pivot
point.
3. In the Camera View window, select the pivot point and drag it to the position
where you want to focus the scaling.
You can now use the Select tool to scale the element as you wish using the resize
handles.
You can use the temporary pivot point that appears when the Select tool is active to
make changes to the scale and rotation of an element. However, the original pivot
point position will be preserved the next time the drawing is selected and these
settings will not be saved.
You can also change the scale position manually in the Drawing tab of the Properties
window.
To change the scale pivot point by entering specific values:

Scene Operation Tools toolbar and click the element in a Sceneplanning view
window.
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2. Select Tools > Sceneplanning Tools > Scale or click the Scale tool on the
Scene Operation Tools toolbar.
3. Select Window > Properties. The Properties dialog box opens and the pivot point
position values are displayed in the Scale Pivot fields of the element’s tab.
4. Type the values in the Scale Pivot fields.
D To change the NS pivot point position, type the value in the left field,
followed by its direction (N for north or S for south).
D To change the EW pivot point position, type the value in the right field,
See Also
Positioning Pivot Points on Cut-Out Characters on page 272
Rotating Elements
When you open your elements for the first time in the Camera View, the images appear
at the angle at which you initially drew them.
You can rotate all of the contents in an element using the Select tool. The rotation
can be as simple as changing the element’s angle so it appears to move up or downhill,
or as complex as a skateboarder performing acrobatics as he rotates through the air.
When you rotate an element, it rotates around the rotation pivot point.
rotation pivot
point
To rotate an element over time, you must use the Rotate tool. Refer to Animating
Rotation with the Rotate Tool on page 242 for more information.
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To rotate an element using the Rotate tool:
1. Select the element you want to rotate using one of the following methods:
Scene Operation Tools toolbar and click the element in the Camera View
window.
2. In the Camera View window, drag the rotation handle (the white circle) until the
element is at the new angle.
As you change the element’s angle of rotation, the value appears in the Rotation
field of the Properties dialog box.
Rotate the element using the rotation
handle.
The element’s angle of

rotation appears here.
Hold down the [Shift] key to rotate the element in 15 degree increments.
217
To rotate an element by entering specific values:
1. Select the element you want to rotate using one of the following methods:
window.
2. Select Window > Properties. The Properties dialog box opens.
3. Type the angle value in the Rotation field in the Properties dialog box.
You can enter a negative value (to rotate to the left) or a positive value (to rotate to
the right).
See Also
Changing the Rotation Pivot Point Position on page 218
Animating Rotation with the Rotate Tool on page 242
Changing the Rotation Pivot Point Position

You can use the rotation pivot point to change the center of rotation.
To change the position of the

rotation pivot point, activate the
Rotate tool, and change the pivot
point, highlighted in green.
The default position of the pivot
point is the center position of the
grid, not the drawing.
In these examples, you can see how the placement of the pivot point produces different rotation effects.
218
After you change the pivot point of an element, you can move the element to another
position and Toon Boom Studio maintains the relative position of the pivot point.
The blue pivot that

appears when using the
Select tool is a
temporary pivot point.
You can change an element’s pivot point by:

• dragging the rotation pivot point
To change the rotation pivot point using the Rotate tool:

window.
2. Select Tools > Sceneplanning Tools > Rotate or click the Rotate tool in the
Scene Operation Tools toolbar. The rotation range appears on the element.
This is the rotation range
for the Rotate tool.
Activate it to reposition
the element pivot point.
3. In the Camera View window, drag the rotation pivot point in the center of the
rotate range circle to its new position.
219
You can now use the Select tool to rotate the element as you wish using the
rotation handle.
You can also change the center of rotation manually in the Drawing tab of the
Properties window.
To change rotation pivot point by entering specific values:

Scene Operation Tools toolbar and click the element in any Sceneplanning
view window.
2. Select Window > Properties. The Properties window opens. The pivot point
position values are displayed in the Rotation Pivot fields of the element’s tab.
3. Type the values in the Rotation Pivot fields in the Properties dialog box.
• To change the NS pivot point position, type the value in the left field,
followed by its direction (N for north or S for south).
• To change the EW pivot point position, type the value in the right field,
See Also
220
Chapter 7
Animating
This chapter explains how to use pegs to animate motion, rotation, skewing
and scaling.
• Animating Elements with Pegs on page 222
• Using Keyframes and Timeline Properties on page 228
• Animating Rotation with the Rotate Tool on page 242
• Animating Size Changes with the Scale Tool on page 245
• Animating Skewing with the Skew Tool on page 248
• Creating Motion Paths with the Motion Tool on page 250
• Animating with the Transform Tool on page 266
• Animating Cut-out Characters on page 270
• Editing Functions Using the Function Editor on page 274
Animating Elements with Pegs

The Sceneplanning View windows - the Camera View, the Top View and the Side View
- put many 3D computer animation features at your disposal so that you can select
elements and reposition your 2D elements over time on a 3D stage.
You can animate changes by moving elements manually in each frame, or you can
speed up the animation process and create better results - faster - by setting rotation,
scaling, skewing and motion path information for elements at specific frames and
letting Toon Boom Studio animate the transformations between these frames.
These transformations over time are applied using a sceneplanning component called
a peg. Toon Boom Studio can interpolate all changes to gradually transform your
elements from one frame to the next (this process is also called inbetweening or
tweening).
There are two types of pegs:
Peg elements: You can add a Peg element layer to the Timeline window and attach
other elements to it. Change the peg element’s position, size, skew or rotation over time
and the elements attached to them will be transformed according to the its parent peg’s
properties. Some of the ways you can animate with Peg elements:
• Attach one or more Drawing or Image elements to a Peg element to transform
them.
• Attach a Camera element to a Peg element with a motion path to pan, truck
in, truck out and create inventive shots by moving within the 3D stage.
• Attach a Peg element to another peg to build a hierarchy and combine motion
effects.
Drawing pegs: Drawing elements have a built-in peg component that you can use to
apply motion, scaling, rotation or skewing directly to your drawing. It makes pegs
222
Chapter 7: Animating
“transparent” in the Timeline, reducing the need to add a Peg element each time a
transformation is required for a Drawing element.
In this shot, a peg is used to

create a motion path that the
camera follows through the
multiple planes in the scene.
The tick marks indicate the
position of the camera at each
frame.
When transforming a peg, keyframes are used to identify the transformation values at a
specific frame and lock them in place. A keyframe can be set for rotation, scaling,
skewing, motion or a combination of one more transformations.
See Also
Basic Sceneplanning Concepts on page 200
Building Peg Hierarchies on page 225
Displaying Peg Hierarchies on page 226
Using Keyframes and Timeline Properties on page 228
Adding Peg Elements and Attaching Child

Elements
To animate an element, or change it over time, you must change its peg properties.
You can add a Peg element or use a Drawing element’s built-in peg.
If you are working with a Peg element, you will have to add it to your Timeline and
attach other elements to it. There are two ways to do this.
To add a peg and attach an element to it:

1. Click the Add Peg button in the Timeline window. A peg appears above the
currently selected element in the Timeline.
2. In the left-side of the Timeline window, select the element you want attach to the
peg and drag it on top of the peg element.
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In this example, we want

to attach the Camera
element to a peg.
3. Release the mouse button. The selected element is now attached to the peg. The
element is now a child of the parent peg.
Notice that any elements
are indented below the peg
they are attached to.
4. To rename the peg, select the peg and select Element > Rename Element.
You must give the peg a unique name. You can include the name of the element it
affects. For example, you could call the peg hair-Peg.
To add a peg and attach an element to it:

1. Select the elements you want to attach to the peg.
2. Click the Parent Peg button in the Timeline.
Toon Boom Studio adds a peg for each element you selected and attaches them to
the new pegs in the Timeline.
See Also
Changing the Duration of a Peg Element on page 239
Looping a Peg on page 240
Configuring Video Card Display Options on page 58
224
Building Peg Hierarchies

You can attach one peg to another to combine effects on the child drawing and image
elements.
In the following example, we created a scene of a boy walking across a lawn with a bird
flying in circles over his head. The primary action is the motion of the two characters
across the scene. The bird has another secondary action, that of circling the boy’s head.
To make sure the bird keeps pace

with the boy, you would link the bird’s
circular motion peg to the boy’s
motion path.
Boy’s and Bird’s peg
Bird’s peg
To achieve this effect, you must attach the bird and its peg to the boy’s peg, building
what we call a peg hierarchy. In this example, the bird’s motion path is a child of the
motion path of the boy.
To build the peg hierarchy in this example:

1. Attach the Boy element to a peg that defines a horizontal motion path.
2. Attach the Bird element to a peg that makes the bird fly in circles around the boy.
3. Attach the Bird’s peg to the Boy’s peg so that the bird moves across the scene as it
flies in circles around the boy.
225
The following elements make up the peg hierarchy from

this scene:
• The Boy Walking element is attached to the Boy

Walking-P peg.
• The Bird Flying element is attached to the Bird
Flying-P peg.
Notice how the attached • The Bird Flying-P peg element is attached to the
elements are indented below
Boy Walking-P peg.
Boy Walking, the primary peg.
You can also take advantage of the drawing pegs built-in to each Drawing element.
The following elements make up the peg hierarchy from
this scene:
• The Bird Flying element is attached to the built-in

peg inside the Boy Walking element.
• The peg built in to the Bird Flying-P element is
attached to the Boy Walking drawing peg.
Notice how the attached
element is indented below Boy
Walking, the Drawing element
with the primary peg.
See Also
Building Peg Hierarchies to Animate Cut-Out Characters on page 270
Displaying Peg Hierarchies

After you attach an element to a peg in a Peg element or Drawing element, you will
notice that there is a blue Arrow next to the element containing the peg. This button
helps you simplify the display of elements in your Timeline and makes it easier for you
to work on the timing of your pegs and their child elements.
Use the blue Arrow next
to the Peg element or
Drawing element to
change the how child
elements are displayed.
226
To use the Arrow button to show/hide child elements and change their timing:
• Click the Arrow button to collapse elements nested beneath the Peg or
Drawing element. This simplifies the display of elements in your Timeline.
When you collapse the parent peg in a hierarchy of elements, all changes you make to
the timing of the parent peg are applied to the elements beneath it, including Peg,
Drawing and Image elements.
If you are animating a cut-out character, you can collapse the top-most peg in the
hierarchy to simplify your Timeline. Then you can use the Transform tool to select and
animate the parts of the character visually in the Camera View window, rather than
trying to locate the peg you want to animate in the Timeline and then transform it in
the Camera View.
The parts on this cut-out character are

organized on numerous pegs.
There is one parent peg that organizes all of the
parts of the character.
You can collapse all of the child elements in the

hierarchy to simplify your Timeline. Then you
can use the Transform tool to select and
animate the parts of the character.
See Also
Animating with the Transform Tool on page 266
Creating Motion Paths with the Motion Tool on page 250
Changing an Element’s Start Time in the Timeline on page 353
227
Using Keyframes and Timeline

Properties
Keyframes lock a change in position, rotation and scale to a specific frame and store the
value for that transformation. When you add a keyframe to define the values for one
or more transformations—motion, scale, skew or rotation— at a specific frame, you can
use the features in Toon Boom Studio to animate the changes between them.
Just as creating a drawing element and selecting a new position over 20 frames is faster
than creating 20 drawings for 20 frames, adding keyframes for a peg’s transformations
and letting Toon Boom Studio animate rest saves even more time.
A keyframe was A second keyframe was A third keyframe
added to record the added when the image was added with
initial position of this was scaled and the east- additional changes.
drawing. west position was
changed
You can set Toon Boom Studio to animate the transformation in the
frames between one keyframe and the next. This is known as tweening.
Keyframe information is visible in the Timeline window. It allows you to see:

• Which elements have transformations applied to them
• Which parent pegs are affected by child element transformations
• You can see the type of transformations that have been applied at a frame
(motion, scale, skew, rotation) by looking at the type of marker associated
with the keyframe
• If the change in between keyframes is constant (the position of the last
keyframe is maintained in the next frames until a new keyframe is defined) or
non-constant (gradually changes in the frames between two keyframes).
228
See Also
Adding Keyframes for Motion, Rotation, Skewing and Scaling on page 229
Tweening Motion or Maintaining Constant Values Between Keyframes on page 230
Copying and Pasting Keyframe Values on page 233
Copying and Moving Frames in the Timeline on page 235
Pasting Selected Frame Properties in the Timeline on page 237
Adding Keyframes for Motion, Rotation,

Skewing and Scaling
The tool you have selected determines what kind of keyframe you create.
• Transform: creates a keyframe for motion, scale, rotation and skew values.
• Motion: creates a keyframe for the position values.
• Rotate: creates a keyframe for the angle values.
• Skew: creates a keyframe for the skew values.
• Scale: creates a keyframe for the horizontal and vertical scale values.
Marks in the Timeline identify keyframes for motion, rotation, skewing or scaling.
You can add keyframes to
pegs in Peg Elements and
Drawing Elements.
It it easy to pick out the type of
keyframe in the Timeline.
upper triangle:
scale/skew
square: motion
lower triangle:
scale/skew
A red square in a Peg element indicates that a A line indicates an change over
keyframe exists on a child element at that frame. time between keyframe values.
To add keyframes:
1. In the Timeline window, select a Peg element or a Drawing element.
2. Then, use the red frame slider to select the frame where you want to add the
keyframe.
229
3. From the Tools > Sceneplanning Tools menu or the Scene Operation toolbar,
select the tool you want use to add the keyframe (Transform, Motion, Rotation,
Skew or Scale).
4. Select Element > Peg > Add Keyframe. Toon Boom Studio adds a keyframe to the
element at the current frame in the Timeline.
See Also
Adding Keyframes and Changing their Values on page 275
Tweening Motion or Maintaining Constant

Values Between Keyframes
The Toon Boom Studio can automatically generate inbetween drawings when you
move, scale, rotate or skew elements with pegs. This process of generating inbetween
transition drawings is known as interpolation or motion tweening.
By default, when you add keyframes to pegs, Toon Boom Studio tweens the drawings
animated by the peg.
If you are animating a cut-out character, you may want to use keyframes to control the
animation rather than allow Toon Boom Studio to automate inbetween drawings. To
do this, you must change a segment between two keyframes from a tweened segment
to a constant segment. When you create constant segments, images switch from one to
the other, without any interpolation.
To tween the images animated by the peg you must change each segment from a
constant segment to a non-constant (tweened) segment. When you tween images on a
motion path, tick marks appear on the motion path to indicate each position of the
image as it is interpolated.
230
You can switch segments between constant and non-constant using menu commands
or the Function Editor.
You can use a preference to change the default keyframe/tweening behavior of pegs.
This motion path has been interpolated, so the Goth

Girl will change position frame-by-frame as she moves
from frame 1 to frame 20.
In the Timeline, a horizontal line appears between
keyframes that are interpolated, or non-constant.
This motion path has not been interpolated. The Goth

Girl will jump from her position at the first keyframe to her
position at the last keyframe.
In the Timeline, no horizontal line appears between
constant keyframes.
To change a tweened segment to a constant segment:

1. In the Timeline window, select the Peg element or Drawing element with a
tweened segment.
2. Position the Current Frame slider so that it is at the first keyframe in the segment
you want to change.
3. Select Element > Peg > Set Constant Segment. The default keyboard shortcut is
[Ctrl]+[L] (Windows) or [Command]+[L] (MacOS).
To change a constant segment to a tweened segment:

1. In the Timeline window, select the Peg element or Drawing element with a
constant segment.
231
2. Position the Current Frame slider in the Timeline so that it is at the first keyframe
in the segment you want to change. You can also position it between two
keyframes.
3. Select Element > Peg > Set Non Constant Segment. The default keyboard
shortcut is [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[L] (Windows) or [Command]+[Shift]+[L] (MacOS).
To change the default from a constant segment to tweened segment:

2. Click the Sceneplanning tab.
3. De-select the Create Constant Keyframes option.

4. Click OK. All new keyframes that you create after you disable this option will
create tweened animated effects. Changing this preference does not affect
keyframes that were created before you changed this setting.
See Also
Editing Functions Using the Function Editor on page 274
232
Copying and Pasting Keyframe Values

You can copy and paste the values of a keyframe to another keyframe. The values you
copy and paste depend on the tool you have selected.
• Transform: copies/pastes the motion, scale, rotation and skew values.
• Motion: copies/pastes only the position values.
• Scale: copies/pastes only the horizontal and vertical scale values.
• Rotation: copies/pastes only the angle values.
• Skew: copies/pastes only the skew values.
To copy and paste keyframe values:

1. In the Timeline window, select a Peg element or Drawing element.
2. Use the red frame slider to select the frame whose values you want to copy.
3. From the Tools > Sceneplanning Tools menu or the Scene Operation toolbar,
select the tool whose values you want to copy.
4. Select Edit > Copy Cell to copy the values of the frame.
If you copy a keyframe of a Drawing peg, you also copy the drawing at the selected
frame. The drawing in the frame where you paste the keyframe values will be
overwritten by the drawing of the copied selection unless you use paste special and
uncheck the option to paste the exposure of the drawing.
5. In the Timeline window, use the red frame slider to select the frame where you
want to paste the copied values.
6. Select Edit > Paste to paste the values to the frame. Toon Boom Studio creates a
keyframe if one does not already exist.
You can also use the Paste Special command to copy selected values from the original
keyframe (including tension, continuity, bias, rotation, scale and pivot) to another
keyframe. You can even copy values from a control point, which is a motion point that
is not locked to a specific frame, to another control point or keyframe.
Because certain values can only be applied to a motion point, the options in the Paste
Special dialog box change based on the characteristics of the motion point that you
select to receive the pasted values.
233
To copy and paste selected values of a motion point:
1. Select a Peg element in the Timeline window and select the motion point whose
position values you want to copy. You can use one of the following methods:
• Select Tools > Sceneplanning Tools > Motion and click the motion point
with the Motion tool.
• In the Scene Operation toolbar, click the Motion tool and click the motion
point with it.
• Select Element > Motion Points > Previous Motion Point or Next Motion
Point.
• Click the < and > buttons at the bottom of the Motion Point tab.
2. Select the motion point you want to copy the values to and select Edit > Paste
Special. The Paste Special dialog box opens.
3. Select the values you want to paste into the selected motion point and click OK.
See Also
234
Copying and Moving Frames in the Timeline

You can drag and drop selections of frames, and their values, in the Timeline window
to move or copy the entire contents of the frame or copy only selected contents.
To move frames in the Timeline window:

1. Select the frames you want to move.
The Single Cell Selection preference is a default setting, if it is not selected, hold
down [Alt] (Windows) or [Option] (MacOS) when selecting the frames.
2. Drag the selection to the new location and release the mouse button.
The selected frames are moved to their new location. Toon Boom Studio extends
the exposure of what was previously the last frame.
To copy frames in the Timeline window:

1. Select the frames you want to copy. If the Single Cell Selection preference is not
selected, hold down [Alt] (Windows) or [Option] (MacOS) as you select the
frames.
235
2. Drag the selection to the new location.

3. Press [Ctrl] (Windows) or [Option] (MacOS) and then release the mouse button.
The selected frames are copied to their new location. Toon Boom Studio extends
the exposure of what was previously the last frame.
To copy or move selected frame contents in the Timeline window:

1. Select the frames you want to copy or move. If the Single Cell Selection preference
is not selected, hold down [Alt] (Windows) or [Option] (MacOS) as you select the
frames.
2. Start dragging the selection.

3. Press [Alt] (Windows) or [Option] (MacOS) and release the mouse button. The
Timeline Drag & Drop Preferences dialog box opens.
236
4. Select the properties you want to move or copy to the new frames and click OK.
See Also
Pasting Selected Frame Properties in the Timeline on page 237
Copying Selected Template Contents into Your Animation on page 379
Pasting Selected Frame Properties in the

Timeline
From the Timeline window, you can paste selected frame properties across elements
and pegs. This can help speed the production of effects that repeat values.
To paste selected frame properties in the Timeline window:

1. Select the frames you want to copy. If the Single Cell Selection preference is not
selected, press the [Alt](Windows) or [Option] (MacOS) button as you select the
frames.
2. Select Edit > Copy to copy the frames.
237
3. Advance the red frame slider to the frame where you want to paste the frames.
Do not release the selected elements. If you accidentally de-select the elements, re-
select them.
4. Select Edit > Paste Special. The Timeline Paste Special Preferences dialog box
opens.
5. Select the properties you want to paste and click OK.

See Also
Copying and Moving Frames in the Timeline on page 235
Animating Skewing with the Skew Tool on page 248
Using Paste Special to Update Content from a Template on page 382
238
Changing the Duration of a Peg Element

If you add content or change the exposure of content that you have already attached to
a Peg element and designed effects for, you may need to extend the duration of the peg.
Let’s say that you have a 24 frame walk-cycle. You drew the character walking in place,
so you must create a motion path with a peg for your drawings to follow.
The duration of the Peg element your cycle is attached to is 20 frames only. If you did
not change this, your character would appear to walk in place from frame 20 to 24. For
your character to continue moving as he walks from frame 20 to 24, you must extend
the duration of the peg by four frames, from frame 20 to 24.
There are a number of ways you can change the duration of a Peg element.
This is the peg’s

trackbar, which you
can use to change
the duration of the
peg.
The blue Arrow next to the peg determine if changes in the start time or duration of
the parent peg will affect child elements. See “Using Keyframes and Timeline
Properties” on page 228.
To change the duration of a Peg element by dragging the trackbar:

• Move the pointer to the edge of the Peg element in the right panel of the
Timeline window and drag the trackbar to the left or right to increase or
decrease the length of the peg. A peg must always be at least two frames in
length.
Toon Boom Studio inserts a keyframe at the original last keyframe and gives
both the original and the new last keyframe the same values.
D You can stretch the peg and move all of the keyframes proportionally by
pressing [Shift] as you drag.
D You can loop a Peg element by pressing [Ctrl] (Windows) or [Command]
(MacOS) as you drag.
To change the duration of a Peg element using the Change Duration command:
• Right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) the peg, select Change
Duration from the pop-up menu, type the new length of the peg, and click
OK.
239
To change the duration of a peg using the Extend Exposure command:
1. In the Timeline window, use the red frame slider to select the frame you want to
extend the peg to.
2. Select the Peg element in the Timeline window, and then select Element > Peg >
Extend Exposure. The Extend Exposure dialog box appears.
3. Type the new duration of your peg elements exposure in the Extend to Frame
field.
4. Click OK. Toon Boom Studio changes the duration of the peg and adjust all effects
so that you maintain the effect that you created before you extended the peg.
Toon Boom Studio inserts a keyframe at the original last keyframe and gives both
the original and new last keyframe the same values.
See Also
Looping a Peg
If you want a Peg element to repeat an effect, you can loop the peg.
For example, if you had a scene with a boy walking across the stage with a bird circling
his head, you would create a peg with a motion path of a single orbit for the bird. You
would then loop the orbit motion path so that the bird would continue to circle the
boys head for the duration of his motion path.
If you want the bird to circle the

boy’s head following the same
path, you would loop its peg so
that it lasts as long as the boy’s
motion path.
Each time the loop restarts, it skips the first frame of the peg. Similar to a walk-cycle
where the last step leads naturally to the first step in the cycle, this ensures the logical
continuation of the looped action. Therefore, if you loop a 10-frame peg three times, the
entire length of the peg will be 28 frames.
240
To loop a peg:
1. Right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) the Peg Element’s peg bar in
the right panel of the Timeline window and select Change Loops. The Change
Loops dialog box opens.
2. Type the number of times you want to repeat the selected peg and click OK.
The peg now repeats itself for the number of loops you selected. After the first
segment, the peg bar of the looped segments is grey.
You can also loop a peg by pressing [Ctrl] (Windows) or [Command] (MacOS) as you
drag the end of the trackbar.
See Also
241
Animating Rotation with the Rotate

Tool
Use the Rotate tool to animate changes to the angle of pegs and their child elements.
When the Rotate tool is active, the peg displays a rotation handle that you can use to
rotate the peg and all attached elements.
Frame 30: 90 degrees
Frame 1: 0 degrees Frame 20: 270 degrees
To change the angle of a pegged element, you can work in the Camera View window
to rotate the element visually (you cannot change an element’s rotation in either the
Top or Side View windows).
When you rotate a peg at a frame that has no keyframe, a rotation keyframe marker
appears in the Timeline window.
The rotation keyframe
appears as a small
triangle near the top of
the frame.
This is a change of
rotation on a Drawing
element’s peg.
When you rotate a peg, all elements attached to the Peg element or Drawing element
are also rotated. A peg’s rotation value appears in the Peg or Drawing tab, depending
on the type of element you have selected. Any rotation you add to keyframes are
based on the static rotation value of the peg plus the changes you make to the
dynamic rotation value.
242
To rotate a pegged element in the Camera View window:
1. In the Timeline window, select the peg:
• Select a Peg element. The peg appears in all Sceneplanning View windows.
• Select a Drawing element to use its built-in peg. The drawing selection
becomes active.
2. Select Tools > Sceneplanning Tools > Rotate. This activates the Rotate tool.
The rotation handle appears on the selected peg at the current frame in the
Camera View window.
3. In the Timeline window, drag the red frame slider to the frame where you want
to create the rotation keyframe.
This is the frame slider.
4. In the Camera View window, use the rotation handle to change the angle of the
element. Press [Shift] to rotate the peg at 15 degree increments.
Once you set the angle of rotation, a keyframe is added to the current frame to
record the position.
When you change the peg’s angle of the rotation in the Use the rotation
Camera View, a rotation keyframe is added at the current handle to change the
frame in the Timeline window. angle of the peg.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for every rotation keyframe you want to create.
243
The change in rotation will be

animated between these two
keyframe positions.
You can show element arms when you are rotating a peg that you have attached
multiple elements to. When you show element arms, a rotation handle appears on
each element attached to the peg. To display element arms:
• Select View > Pegs > Show Element Arms.
You can edit rotation keyframes with the Rotation function in the Function Editor. You
can also edit the rotation value of motion points on the Motion Point tab.
See Also
Moving Motion Points with the Motion Point Tab on page 259
Rotating Elements on page 216
244
Animating Size Changes with the

Scale Tool
Use the Scale tool to animate changes to the size of pegs and their child elements.
When the Scale tool is active, the peg displays square scaling handle that allows you to
stretch or shrink the size of the peg and all attached elements.
Frame 10: scale factor 0.5
Frame 20: scale factor 2
Frame 1: scale factor 1
To change the size of a peg and its child elements, you must work in the Camera View
window (you cannot scale an element in either the Top or Side View windows).
When you scale a peg at a frame that has no keyframe, a scale keyframe marker
The scale keyframe appears as a
small triangle near the bottom of
the frame.
This is a change of scale on a

Drawing element’s peg.
When you scale a peg, all elements attached to the Peg element or Drawing element
are also resized. The scale value of the peg appears on the Peg or Drawing tab,
depending on the type of element you selected. Any scale change you add to
keyframes are based on the static scale value of the peg plus the changes you make.
To scale a peg in the Camera View window:

becomes active.
245
2. Select Tools > Sceneplanning Tools > Scale. This activates the Scale tool. The
square scaling handle appears on the selected peg at the current frame.
3. In the Timeline window, drag the red frame slider to the frame where you want
to create the scale keyframe.
4. In the Camera View window, use the scale handles to resize the peg’s height,
width or both. Press [Shift] to maintain the proportions of the element as you
scale it.
Once you set the scale, a keyframe is added to the current frame to record the
position.
When you change the peg’s scale values in the Camera Use the scale handles
View, a scale keyframe is added at the current frame in the to resize the peg.
Timeline window.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for every scale keyframe you want to create.
The change in rotation will be animated
between these two keyframe positions.
You can edit vertical and horizontal scale keyframes with the V-Scale and H-Scale
functions using the Function Editor.
246
See Also
247
Animating Skewing with the Skew

Tool
Use the Skew tool to control the animation of a skewing effect only. When the Skew
tool is active, the peg displays square handles that you can use to skew the attached
elements.
To skew a peg and its child elements, you must work in the Camera View window (you
cannot skew an element in either the Top or Side View windows).
When you skew a peg at a frame that has no keyframe, a skew keyframe marker
The skew keyframe is the same

as the rotation keyframe. It
appears as a small triangle near
the top of the frame.
This is a change in skew on

a Drawing element’s peg.
When you skew pegs, all elements attached to the Peg element or Drawing element
are also skewed. The peg’s skew angle appears on the Peg or Drawing tab. Any skew
change you add to keyframes are based on the static skew value of the peg plus the
changes you make.
To skew a peg in the Camera View window:

becomes active.
2. Select Tools > Sceneplanning Tools > Skew. This activates the Skew tool.
Square handles appear on the selected peg at the current frame in the Camera
View window.
3. Drag the frame slider to the frame where you want to create the skew keyframe.
248
4. In the Camera View window, use the skew handles to skew the peg’s angle.
Use the skew handles
When you change the peg’s skew values in the to resize the peg.
Camera View, a skew keyframe is added at the
current frame in the Timeline window.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for every skew keyframe you want to create.
The skewing change will be
animated between these two
keyframe positions.
You can edit the skew values using the Function Editor.
See Also
249
Creating Motion Paths with the

Motion Tool
With the Motion tool, you can modify motion paths by adding and moving
keyframes on the peg.
The 3D Sceneplanning views allow you to create motion paths that go from east to
west, north to south, or front to back. When your character moves front to back on a
motion path, Toon Boom Studio automatically resizes it as it moves closer to, or farther
away from, the camera.
The 3D stage windows are useful when

designing the motion path of our character.
In the Camera View window, you can map out
the east/west and north/south direction of the
motion path.
In the Top
View window,
you can map
out the front/
back and
east west
direction of
the motion
path.
In the Side View

window, you can map
out the north/south and
front/back position of the
motion path.
You can create motion paths for pegs in a Peg element these provide visual
information, including a visible line of motion in all Sceneplanning views. When you
activate the Motion tool and you have selected a Peg element that has not been
modified, two keyframes appear stacked on top of each other at the center point of the
Sceneplanning view window. The first keyframe has an arrow that points right and the
last keyframe also has an arrow and it points left.
250
You can grab a keyframe with the Motion tool and drag it in any direction to create a
motion path that goes in a straight line. When you create a motion path with non-
constant segments, you’ll see a series of tick marks. Each tick mark represents the
position of the element at each frame in the peg as it is tweened (interpolated).
The first and last keyframe are

identified with arrows that point
in opposite directions.
This is a tweened motion path
for a Peg element.
To shape a motion path and change the direction in which elements attached to the peg
will move, you add control points and keyframes and change their position.
You can add control

points and keyframes to
a peg at specific frames
to change the direction
of the motion path.
You can improve the display quality of pegs in the View windows by changing the
Smoothness setting on the Peg tab. You must enable Smooth Pegs on the
Sceneplanning tab of the Preferences dialog boxes to see changes to a peg’s
smoothness.
You can reposition pegs like you can change the position of most elements in the 3D
space. When you reposition a peg, all elements attached to the peg also move. In
addition, the values of points you add to your motion paths are based on the static
position of the peg, plus the change in position to the motion point.
See Also
Creating a NS or EW Motion Path on page 252
Creating a FB Motion Path on page 254
Adding Motion Points to a Motion Path on page 256
251
Creating a NS or EW Motion Path

Motion is essential to transform your drawings and images from still life pictures to
animated movies.
In the Camera View window, you can stretch the peg to create a motion path that goes
from north to south (NS) and east to west (EW). All elements that are attached to the
peg will follow the motion path of the peg.
N
This motion path goes from south to
north.
This motion path goes from west to
east.
Drag the motion points at the start or
end of the motion path to change the
direction of the motion path.
W E
Tick marks appear on non-constant (tweened) segments of motion paths. The tick
marks represent the position of the element at each frame as it is interpolated between
keyframes.
If your motion path is constant, no tick marks will appear on your motion path
because the motion is not tweened.
To create NS and EW motion for a peg:

becomes active.
You can hide other elements to make it easier to identify and modify the peg.
2. Select Tools > Sceneplanning Tools > Motion. This activates the Motion tool.
252
3. If you are working with a Peg element: drag the motion points at the beginning or
end of the motion path to give the motion path a direction. Your mouse pointer
becomes a four-headed arrow when you position it over a motion point that you
can move.
• Drag the motion points from left to right to create a path that goes from west
to east.
• Drag the motion points from top to bottom to create a path that goes from
north to south.
4. If you are working with a Drawing peg: drag the Drawing element to the position
at which you want to add a keyframe for the current frame.
When you are creating motion paths, elements linked to a Peg element may be offset
from the motion path. This can make it difficult to visualize how an element will
change position as it follows the peg.
You can display peg ghosts in the Camera View window to see the path that an
element linked to a peg will follow. To display peg ghosts:
• Select View > Pegs > Show Peg Ghosts.
See Also
253
Creating a FB Motion Path

With the Toon Boom Studio 3D scene space, you can create multiplane effects for
elements by creating motion paths that go from the front to the back of the scene.
The Top View and Side View windows can help you visualize front/back (FB) motion.
All elements appear as lines in the Top View and Side View.
Here’s a front to back motion path that goes
B from bottom to top in the Top View window.
Here’s a front to
back motion path
that goes from left to
right in the Side
View window.
F B
To create FB motion:
becomes active.
You can hide other elements to make it easier to identify and modify the peg.
3. If you are working with a Peg element: drag the motion points at the beginning or
end of the motion path to give the motion path a direction. The mouse pointer
becomes a four-headed arrow when you position it over a motion point that you
can move.
The direction you drag the spline points depends on the window you are using.
• In Top View, you drag a motion point from top to bottom to change its FB
position.
• In Side View, you drag a motion point from left to right to change its FB
position.
4. If you are working with a Drawing peg: drag the Drawing element to the position
at which you want to add a keyframe for the current frame.
254
You can also change the FB motion of motion points in the Camera View window by
pressing [Alt] as you move the motion points.
• Press [Alt] (Windows) or [Option] (MacOS) and drag up to move the motion
point backward.
• Press [Alt] (Windows) or [Option] (MacOS) and drag down to move the
motion point forward.
See Also
255
Adding Motion Points to a Motion Path

If you want to create a motion path that is not straight, you must add motion points to
a Peg element’s motion path.
Motion points can be either keyframes or control points. Keyframes are locked to a
specific frame number and control points are not locked.
• Add keyframes when you want to lock the position of the motion path to a
specific drawing or image in an element to a position.
• Add control points when you want your element to reach a specific position,
but you don’t need it to do so at a specific frame.
Then you can use the Motion tool to move the motion points and change the shape
of the motion path.
The start/end control points don’t appear until you

activate the Motion tool.
You can then drag the start/end motion points to
change the shape of the motion path.
You cannot add control points to constant segments on motion paths. This is because
constant segments do not interpolate (tween) changes in position, rotation or scaling
between frames.
To add a motion point to a motion path:

1. Select a Peg element in the Timeline window. The peg appears in all View
windows. You can hide other elements to make it easier to identify and modify
pegs.
256
3. Place the pointer over the motion path of the peg and decide which type of
motion point you want to add.
• Press [Alt] (Windows) or [Option] (MacOS) and click the motion path to add
a keyframe. The mouse pointer becomes a square when it is over a spot where
you can add a keyframe. A red point appears on the motion path after you
click.
• Press [Shift] and click the motion path to add a control point. The mouse
pointer becomes a diamond when it is over a spot where you can add a
control point. A green point appears on the motion path after you click.
4. Drag the new point to a position where you want the motion path to be at that
point. To nudge a motion point, you can also use the arrow keys. Press [Shift] if
you want to move the motion point in larger increments.
When you place the pointer over a motion point, the pointer
changes to a move icon.
The rest of the motion path
changes to follow the
motion point.
• If you added a control point, notice how it changes position on the motion
path. This is because the control point is not locked to a specific time frame.
• If you added a keyframe, notice how it remains at the frame you added it to.
This is because the keyframe is locked at a specific time frame.
See Also
Adding Motion Points with the Motion Point Tab on page 258
Deleting Motion Points from a Motion Path on page 261
Locking/Unlocking Control Points on page 262
257
Adding Motion Points with the Motion Point Tab

You can use the Motion Point tab to add motion points and modify their values.
To add motion points with the Motion Point tab:

1. Select the Peg element you want to affect from the Timeline window. The peg
appears in all View windows.
The control points and keyframes appears on the motion path. If there is no
motion path in the peg, you will only see the first and last keyframes stacked on
top of each other in the View windows.
3. Click a motion point on the motion path. The Motion Point tab opens in the
Properties window.
The Motion Point tab lists the

properties of the motion point you
have selected on the motion path.
4. Click the New button at the bottom of the Motion Point tab. The Add Motion
Point dialog box opens.
Use the Add Motion Point dialog

box to add keyframes or control
points to your motion path.
5. Select the type of motion point you want to add from the Point type drop-list.
258
• Keyframe: places a red keyframe at the selected frame.

• Control Point: places a green control point at the selected keyframe, but you
can drag it to any other frame.
6. In the Frame field, type the frame number where you want to place the motion
point and click OK. If you are adding a control point, you can enter a value with a
decimal point.
See Also
Moving Motion Points with the Motion Point Tab

The Motion Point tab allows you to select individual motion points and change the
size, angle, and offset position at that motion point. The Motion Point tab only appears
when you select a keyframe or control point with the Motion tool.
You may want to use the Motion Point tab if you have a peg with many motion points
and they are too close together to select one accurately. Or, you might not be able to see
the individual points because the motion path is not extended.
To change the properties of a motion point:

1. Select a Peg element in the Timeline window. The peg appears in all View
windows.
3. With the Motion tool, select a motion point on the motion path. The Motion Point
tab opens in the Properties window.
4. Type the number of the frame that contains the control point or keyframe you
want to affect in the Frame field or select one using the < and > buttons (at the
bottom of the Motion Point tab).
259
With the Motion Point tab, you can

change the position of motion
points to a precise value.
5. Type the position values in the Offset fields.

• To change the North/South position, type the position coordinates in the first
Offset field followed by N for North or S for South. You can also use positive
or negative numbers:
D Positive values: places the element northward
D Negative values: places the element southward
• To change the East/West position, type the position coordinates in the second
Offset field followed by W for West or E for East. You can also use positive or
negative numbers:
D Positive values: places the element eastward
D Negative values: places the element westward
• To change the Front/Back position, type the position coordinates in the third
Offset field followed by F for Front or B for Back. You can also use positive or
negative numbers:
D Positive values: places the element to the front
D Negative values: places the element to the back
See Also
260
Deleting Motion Points from a Motion Path

You can remove unnecessary motion points from your motion path. When you remove
a control point or keyframe, the path reshapes itself to follow the remaining points.
You cannot remove the start and end keyframes in any motion path.
To delete a point with the pointer:

• Select the control point/keyframe and press [Del].
To delete a point with the Motion Point tab:

1. Select any motion point. You can use the < and > buttons to select any point in
order along the motion path.
If you know the exact frame number where the point is, you can type it in the
Frame field and press [Enter].
When you select a point, it appears highlighted in the View windows.
2. Click Delete to remove the point.
See Also
261
Locking/Unlocking Control Points

When you add a control point to a Peg element’s motion path, you can change its
position to anywhere between the closest keyframes. This not only changes the shape
of the motion path, but can also slightly affect the velocity of the pegged element’s
movement.
However, if you need the element’s movement to change at a specific frame, you can
lock the motion point at a specific frame number to create a keyframe.
Let’s say you had a character whose drawings changed drastically on specific
keyframes (for example, the character is pacing and he turns around at specific
frames). If you wanted to plot a complex motion path for that character, you could lock
the control points on the important frames and then change the shape of the motion
path.
In this example, the clown drawings change at

specific frames of 5, 24, and 30 and he
suddenly turns around to walk in another
direction.
Since these drawings occur at specific
frames, we locked the control points to create
keyframes.
To lock/unlock your points:

1. Select a Peg element in the Timeline window. The peg appears in all
Sceneplanning View windows.
3. With the Motion tool, select a motion point on the motion path. The Motion Point
tab opens in the Properties window.
4. Use the Lock in time checkbox in the Motion Point tab to lock or unlock the
point.
• If you select the Lock in time checkbox, the control point locks itself to the
current frame and turns red on the motion path. The control point now
becomes a keyframe.
If your control point is between frames, the Toon Boom Studio selects the
closest frame as the locked frame.
262
• If you deselect the Lock in time checkbox, the keyframe becomes unlocked
and turns green, indicating you can change its position. The keyframe now
becomes a control point.
The frame number may change as well since the spline adjusts its velocity on
either side of the control point.
See Also
Adjusting the Curve Between Motion Points

When you add a motion point and change its position on a tweened motion path, the
motion path curves towards that point, reshaping the entire motion path. By default,
the line has a gentle curve on either side of the control point.
You can use the Tension, Bias, and Continuity sliders in the Motion Point tab to adjust
the amount of curve on either side of a motion point, further customizing the segments
of the motion path.
You can adjust each point individually in your motion path, but if you press [Shift]
while dragging the slider, the selected value applies to all the peg points. By default,
each value starts at 0.0, but you can change the default value.
Tension: controls how sharply the path bends as it pass through a motion point.
A Tension of -1 increases
A Tension of +1 sharpens the
the curve on either side of
curve on either side of the
the control point.
control point.
Continuity: controls the smoothness of a transition between the segments joined by a

point.
263
A Continuity of +1 rounds out

A Continuity of -1 sharpens
the transition, creating two
the transition on either side
gentle curves on either side
of the control point.
of the control point.
A zero value creates

a smooth transition.
Bias: controls the slope of the path so that it flows towards one side of the motion point
or the other.
A Bias of -1 favours the left

A Bias of +1 favours the right
side of the control point.
side of the control point.
At zero, neither
side of the point
is favored.
The Tension, Continuity and Bias values have no effect on constant (non-tweened)
segments.
See Also
Defining the Default Tension, Continuity and Bias Values on page 264
Defining the Default Tension, Continuity and Bias Values

As you work on the shape of your motion path, you can change the default tension,
bias, or continuity values using the Sceneplanning tab in the Preferences dialog box.
Toon Boom Studio uses the values you select for all future motion points you add;
existing motion points are not changed.
To define the default Tension, Continuity, and Bias values:

264

2. Click the Sceneplanning tab.
3. Type the default values in any of the following fields. You can type any value
between -1.0 and 1.0:
• Default Tension: controls how sharply the path bends as it pass through a
motion point.
• Default Continuity: controls the smoothness of a transition between the
segments joined by a point.
• Default Bias: controls the slope of the path so that it flows towards one side
of the motion point or the other.
See Also
Adjusting the Curve Between Motion Points on page 263
265
Animating with the Transform Tool

With the Transform tool, you can animate changes in position, rotation, scaling and
skewing all from one tool. Unlike the Motion, Rotation, Scale and Skew tools, you work
visually to select and modify Drawing and Image elements, rather than Pegs, in the
Camera View. When you apply transformations visually to elements, Toon Boom
Studio applies the information to their parent pegs.
You can use the Transform tool in the Camera View, Top View and Side View.
You can use the Function Editor to edit the functions created when you animate with
pegs, including the velocity. You can use the Motion, Rotation, Skew or Scale tools to
animate each function separately.
The Transform tool is ideal for working with cut-outs when you are creating
keyframes at every frame or when you are creating constant segments. However, if
you want to animate only one function, such as a rotation on an arm, or if you want
Toon Boom Studio to interpolate changes between keyframes, it is best to use the tool
specific to the function you want to create: Motion, Rotation, Scale or Skew.
To animate with the Transform tool:

1. In the Timeline, drag the red frame slider to the frame where you want to add a
keyframe.
2. Select Tools > Sceneplanning Tools > Transform. This activates the Transform
tool.
With the Transform tool, select the elements you want to animate. You can drag the
cursor to create a selection box around the elements. Child elements attached to a
selected element will be included.
266
The transform tool selects

all the elements attached
to the selected element.
3. Do any of the following to change the selected elements at that frame:

• Drag the selection to a new position to create a motion keyframe on the
motion path.
• Use the rotate handles to create a rotation keyframe and change the angle of
the element. Hold down [Shift] to rotate the selection in 15 degree increments.
Here the arm and all of its

child elements have been
rotated to a new position.
• Use the scale handles to create a scale keyframe and change the horizontal or
vertical size of the element.
• Hold down [Alt] as you select the handles to create a skew keyframe and
skew the angle of the element.
A keyframe is added automatically at the frame at which you make a
transformation.
267
See Also
Repositioning the Pivot Point of the Transform Tool for an Operation on page 268
Adjusting the Curve Between Motion Points on page 263
Repositioning the Pivot Point of the

Transform Tool for an Operation
You can use the Transform tool to reposition the pivot point of a scale, rotation or skew
transformation.
When you reposition the pivot point with the Transform tool, changes you make to the
rotation or scaling of the elements at the selected frame are based on that pivot point
as long as you have the Transform tool and the elements selected. When you deselect
the elements or switch to another tool and then return to the element, the pivot point
appears again at its default position at the center of the peg’s path while the
transformation you created continues to remember that temporary pivot. There are
two ways to remove that temporary pivot: use the undo command or delete the peg
and recreate the effect.
Repositioning the pivot point with the Transform tool does not create a pivot point
function that you can edit.
To reposition the pivot point using the Transform tool:

1. Select Tools > Sceneplanning Tools > Transform. This activates the Transform
tool.
2. Click or drag to select the elements you want to modify.
3. Use the Transform tool to move the pivot point from the center of the peg’s
motion path.
268
4. Rotate, scale or skew the element based on the new pivot point. If you want to
edit the pivot point of the Transform tool, you must do so before deselecting the
elements or changing tools.
See Also
Changing the Scale Pivot Point Position on page 214
269
Animating Cut-out Characters

Building Peg Hierarchies to Animate Cut-
Out Characters
If you are animating a cut-out character, you can use pegs to organize and control all
of the different body parts of a character. This technique is known as rigging.
In Toon Boom Studio, the term rigging describes a method of setting up elements for
cut-out animation. During the rigging part of the cut-out process, an animator attaches
all of the cartoon character’s components to pegs, which will then be used to animate
the character. Rigging is the process of linking together cut-out parts of a character in
such a way that they can, when animated, move or pivot. For example, a sailboat is
rigged so that the sails and jibs and booms are tied together allowing them all to move
independently, yet function as a single unit. Similarly, a cut-out character is rigged to
allow each of its parts to move and pivot independently and yet form a single unit.
When you are animating a cut-out character, the organization of your body parts on
pegs is extremely important.
• Use separate pegs for each function you want to animate. You should use a
peg for every joint on your character.
For example, if your character will walk while his arm rotates on his
shoulder, use one peg to move the whole character and another peg on the
shoulder to animate the rotation.
• Use the built-in pegs in Drawing elements to attach child Drawing elements,
such as a wrist drawing attached to a forearm drawing, all attached to an
upper arm drawing.
This character is comprised of many parts.
Each part of this character

is a different element: hair,
head, eyes, mouth, left
and right arm, forearm and
wrist, legs, etc.
270
This character’s Exposure Sheet displays thumbnails showing you that she is composed of many parts.
Following is the structure of this character in the Timeline. Notice that there are three
main parts, the head, torso and lower body. Then notice that the girl is organized into
three main sections: Neck, Top_Body and Hips.
All of the Goth Girl’s body parts are in separate

elements. Each element is attached to a drawing
peg or the GothGirl Peg element.
The Goth Girl’s body parts are grouped into three
main sections.
• top_body
• neck
• hips
To build a peg hierarchy for a cut-out character:

1. In the Timeline window, add all of the drawing elements in the character. You
should consider creating a Drawing element for each body part on your character.
2. Think about how you want to organize the parts of your body and then use Peg
elements and drawing pegs to group and organize them.
3. You will probably have to animate some of the body parts to test and fine tune the
structure.
4. After you have got your peg hierarchy established, you should position the pivot
points on all the joints of your character.
271
See Also
Positioning Pivot Points on Cut-Out

Characters
Before you begin animating your cut-out characters, you should position the pivot
points on their pegs. These pivot points represent the joint on which the parts rotate.
For example, you need a pivot point on the shoulder of a character in order to rotate
the whole arm in a natural-looking manner. Take a look at the pictures of this
character.
To animate the Goth Girl’s arm so that it rotates

properly on her shoulder, we had to position the pivot
point of her peg on her shoulder.
When you change the position of the pivot point, Toon Boom Studio gives the same
value to the pivot point at all the frames in your peg. If you want to change the position
of the pivot point over time, you must use the Function Editor to add keyframes to the
pivot path and change their value.
To position the pivot points on cut-out characters:

1. Select the Drawing element or Peg element that the body part you want to rotate
is connected to.
2. Select Tools > Sceneplanning Tools > Rotate .

3. Use the Rotate tool to position the pivot point over the joint.
272
Always use the Rotate tool to make permanent changes to pivot point properties.
These properties will also apply to rotations created by the Transform Tool. Even if
you will be using the Transform tool to animate your cut-out character, this tool’s
pivot point is used as a temporary reference and will not effect any permanent
changes.
Position the pivot point over the center of a

joint so that body parts rotate naturally.
See Also
Repositioning the Pivot Point of the Transform Tool for an Operation on page 268
Changing the Scale Pivot Point Position on page 214
273
Editing Functions Using the

Function Editor
When you animate changes to the properties of an element over time, you create a
function. A function maps the values of an effect over time.
The Function Editor uses plotlines (graphs) to represent changes to properties over
time. With the Function Editor, you can edit the values of each function (rotation,
horizontal and vertical scale, skew, velocity, field-of-view, motion path and pivot
path).
• Along the x-axis (horizontal axis) are the frame numbers.
• Along the y-axis (vertical axis) are the values for the effect you are editing.
When you edit the function for rotation, skew, scale and field-of-view, the shape of the
Function Editor represents the velocity of the effect.
The slope of this

plotline represents the
velocity of the rotation
effect.
• A steep slope
indicates that the
value will change
quickly.
• A gradual slope
indicates that the
value will change
gradually.
When you edit the function of a motion or pivot point path, you map the motion of a
peg in a 3-dimensional space or a pivot point in 2-dimensional space, one dimension
at a time. When you are working with these two functions, you must select the
dimension you want to work on.
For example, let's say that you want your character to jump up and down in place. It
would be difficult to create a jumping motion path in the Camera View window
because the path would repeat on top of itself. To create a jumping motion, it would be
easier to edit the motion path of the peg using the Function Editor.
274
Use the Projection panel to

choose the dimension you want to
edit.
Along the x-axis (horizontal axis)

are the frame numbers.
Along the y-axis (vertical axis) are
the values for the effect you are
editing (motion path and pivot
path).
See Also
Reshaping the Plotline Using the Function Editor on page 277
Changing Your View of the Function Editor on page 279
Adding Keyframes and Changing their

Values
Add keyframes to a plotline in the Function Editor when you want to create an effect
that changes over time.
Here are two examples of when you would add a keyframe to a plotline.
Example 1: Rotation
Let's say that you have an object that you want to rotate to 450 degrees to the right
between frames 1 and 5. Then, rotate 200 degrees to the left and finally back to zero
rotation.
After you attach the element to a peg, you would access the Rotation function in the
Function Editor, add keyframes at each frame, and then change the rotation value of
the keyframes to the desired rotation angle.
275
This plotline
represents the
rotation of the element
over 20 frames
Example 2: Motion
For this example, let's say that you want your character to jump up and down in place.
Open the Motion Path function in the Function Editor. In the north/south projection
of the plotline, add keyframes at each frame where you want the character's motion to
be up or down. Then, move the keyframes on the plotline to create the jumping effect.
In this plotline, you can see how the peg

changes north/south position.
This path would be difficult to edit in the
Camera View window because it repeats
on itself. The Function Editor is the
perfect tool for editing this type of motion
path because it isolates motion in a
particular dimension.
To add keyframes to a plotline and change their value:

1. Select the frame on the plotline where you want to add a keyframe. You can use
one of the following methods.
276
• Activate the Select tool from the Function Editor Tools panel and click the
frame in the plotline.
• Type the value in the x-axis field of the Function Values panel and press
[Enter].
2. Click the Add Point button in the Tools panel of the Function Editor. Pressing
[Ctrl] in Windows adds a keyframe.
The keyframe appears at the frame number you selected. Now you can change
the value of the keyframe you added.
3. Click and drag the point to the new y-axis value. Notice that the y-axis value
changes in the Function Values panel. To get a more precise value, you can type
the value in this field.
The shape of the curve you create reflects the speed of the effect you are creating.
• For the rotation, scale, velocity, and field-of-view functions, you can change
the shape of the plotline to create different velocity effects (like ease-in and
ease-out).
• When you are working on the motion path and pivot path functions, you can
modify the speed of a change by accessing the velocity functions.
See Also
Reshaping the Plotline Using the Function

Editor
You can change the shape of the plotline in the Function Editor when you want to
change how quickly an effect (such as rotation, scale or velocity) is applied to the peg
and other elements attached to it.
The Function Editor provides pre-set reshape functions that you can apply to your
plotline to change its shape. For example, if you wanted an effect to ease-in and ease-
out, you could use one of the ease functions to change the plotline.
• Constant: applies the value you have selected on the horizontal axis (y-
axis) to the segment or plotline.
• Ease in/out : applies a gradual acceleration to the beginning, and a gradual
deceleration to the end, of the segment or plotline.
• Extreme ease in/out :applies a more gradual acceleration to the beginning,
and a more gradual deceleration to the end, of the segment or plotline.
277
• Linear: applies a constant change to the segment or plotline.

• Fast in/out : applies a fast acceleration to the beginning and end of the
segment or plotline.
• Extreme fast in/out : applies an even faster acceleration to the beginning
and end of the segment or plotline.
• Slow acceleration : applies a slow acceleration to the segment or plotline.
• Slow deceleration : applies a fast acceleration to the segment or plotline.
You can also make changes to the shape of your plotline manually. However, when
you use the pre-set functions in the Function Editor, Toon Boom Studio does the work
for you!
To reshape the plotline in the Function Editor using the Reshape Functions:
1. Click the Select button in the Tools panel.

2. Select the segment of the plotline you want to reshape.
• To reshape only one segment, click anywhere along the segment.
• To reshape all segments on the plotline, click anywhere on the plotline.
3. To create segments on the plotline, you must add keyframes.
4. Decide if you want to apply a change to a segment or the whole plotline.
• To reshape only the segment you selected, select any of the options in the
Reshape menu.
• To reshape all segments in the plotline with the same function, press [Shift]
and select one of the options in the Reshape menu.
To manually reshape the plotline in the Function Editor:

1. Click a keyframe on the plotline. Handles appear on either side of the point you
select.
2. Decide if you want to move both handles independently of each other or together.
• To move a handle independently of the other handle, drag the point at the
end of the handle to its new position.
• To move both handles together, press [Alt] (in Windows) or [Command] (in
MacOS) and drag the points to their new position.
The Left and Right Handle and Angle fields also display the position and the
angle of the keyframes. You can also use these fields to set precise position/angles.
See Also
278
Changing Your View of the Function Editor

As you plot values for the selected peg, you can change how the Editor window
displays the plotline and what it represents. You can change the scale of the vertical
and horizontal axes, change the zoom detail on the plotline, or view a different section
of the plotline itself.
To change your view of the Editor window, use any of the following tools:
• Zoom tool: you can increase the detail on the plotline by either clicking on
a general area or drag-selecting an area to view. To zoom out, press [Alt] (in
Windows) or [Option] (in MacOS) and click the plotline.
• Fit button: resizes the view in the Editor window so that the plotline fills
the viewable space.
• Grabber tool: you can view another part of the window by grabbing a part
of the plot area and dragging to another place.
• Grid button: you can toggle a grid that appears behind the plotline to
mark each notch on the horizontal and vertical axes.
• Horizontal/Vertical zoom sliders: you can change the detail level in the
horizontal and vertical axes and see more or fewer values.
Dragging the zoom sliders

changes the horizontal or vertical
zoom factor.
See Also
279
280
Chapter 8
Using the Multiplane Camera
This chapter explains how to use the multiplane camera. You’ll learn how to
change the static properties of a camera as well as how to change its
properties over time.
In this chapter, you will learn how to:
• Camera Effects with Toon Boom Studio on page 282
• Adding Cameras to a Scene on page 284
• Zooming the Camera In or Out on page 289
• Zooming the Camera Over Time on page 291
• Panning and Trucking the Camera on page 297
Camera Effects with Toon Boom

Studio
Like traditional animation, Toon Boom Studio cameras capture a view of your scene
that will play back for your audience. You can use cameras to frame your scenes just
as you do when you take a picture or film a movie.
The Camera View window shows you

how the scene looks to your camera.
The red tint and frame identify the
camera when you select it.
In this scene, the camera pans

across the scene to follow the
snowboarder.
With Toon Boom Studio, you can:

• Reposition cameras
You can reposition a camera to get a specific view of a scene. For example, if
you want your audience to view the action in the center of a large forest
scene, you would reposition your camera to view only that area of the scene.
• Zoom cameras in or out
You can change the field-of-view (FOV) of the camera for the entire duration
of the scene. If you wanted your whole scene to focus on the face of one
character as she speaks, you could set the zoom level of the camera to exclude
all other characters and action in your scene.
• Zoom cameras dynamically throughout your scene
You can also change the zoom level dynamically throughout your scene to
create complex zooming effects. For example, you can start a scene with a
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Chapter 8: Using the Multiplane Camera
close-up of a character and then zoom out to see all of the action in your
scene.
• Pan cameras across or up and down your scene, or truck cameras in and out
Creating pans and trucks with the camera is a breeze when you attach
cameras to pegs and then create motion effects on the pegs. You can create the
effect of moving through your scene by attaching a camera to a peg and then
giving the peg front-to-back motion through your scene.
See Also
Adding Cameras to a Scene on page 284
Zooming the Camera In or Out on page 289
Zooming the Camera Over Time on page 291
Panning and Trucking the Camera on page 297
283
Adding Cameras to a Scene

Toon Boom Studio adds a camera element, which you can zoom, pan and truck, to all
of your scenes.
You can add additional cameras to your scene to try different framing. After you add
a camera, you use the Camera List toolbar button to select the camera you want to use
to see your scene and to change the framing of that camera. On Windows, the Camera
List drop-list is on the Scene View toolbar. When you export your scene, Toon Boom
Studio films the scene from the perspective of the selected camera only.
There is also a default scene camera, which does not appear in the Timeline window.
You cannot change the properties of the default camera. If you want to create any
camera effects, you must add camera elements.
When a secondary camera is offset from the main

camera and you select it in the Timeline window, Toon
Boom Studio displays a cone, which represents the
angle that the secondary camera has on the scene.
To see exactly what secondary cameras see of your
scene, you must select the camera from the Camera
List toolbar button.
In these windows, the active camera is

represented by the square surrounding the
snowboarder.
In the window on the left, the secondary camera
is represented by the black dot in the corner of
the window.
To add a camera to the scene:

1. Select Element > Add > Camera.
A new camera element appears in the Timeline window and in the Camera List
toolbar button. On Windows, this drop-list appears in the Scene View toolbar.
Toon Boom Studio gives the camera a default name.
284
You can place the camera

at any layer in the Timeline
window.
The composition order of the camera in the Timeline window does not affect the
output of your final movie.
2. Select the new camera from the Camera List toolbar button. On Windows, this
drop-list appears in the Scene View toolbar. The contents of the Camera View
window changes to show the view this camera has.
This is the view that the
secondary camera has of the
same scene.
See Also
Deleting Elements on page 341
Positioning a Camera
You can change the north/south, east/west and front/back position of cameras you
add to a scene just like you can change the position of any other element.
If you wanted to see only the action that was taking place on the west side of your
screen, you would add a new camera and move it so that it sees only that part of the
scene.
285
In the Camera View window you can

change the north/south position of a
camera by dragging up and down.
You can also change the east/west
position of a camera by dragging from
the left to the right.
You can change the position of a camera in any of the Sceneplanning view windows
(Camera View window, Side View window and Top View window). The camera’s
field of view appears as a cone in the Top and Side View windows.
• In the Side View window, you change the front/back position of the camera
by dragging from left to right. You change the north/south position of the
camera by dragging from the top to the bottom.
• In the Top View window, you change the front/back position of the camera
by dragging from the top to the bottom. You change the east/west position
by dragging from left to right.
You can view the same scene from
two different perspectives.
286
To change the position of a camera:
1. Add a new camera element to your scene.
2. From the Window menu, select a Sceneplanning view.
• Select Camera View to change the north/south and east/west position of the
camera. You can also change the front/back position in this window by
holding down [Option] while you drag up (back) or down (front).
• Select Side View to change the north/south and front/back position of the
camera.
• Select Top View to change the east/west and front/back position of the
camera.
The camera in both the Side View and Top View windows is represented by a
cone, which reflects the field-of-view that the camera has on the scene. The
camera “films” all elements that are within the field-of-view.
3. Select Tools > Sceneplanning Tools > Select to activate the Select tool.
4. Select the camera. Use one of the following methods:
• Use the Select tool to click the camera frame in any of the View windows.
• Click the camera's name in the Timeline window.
• If the camera is an inactive secondary camera, you can click the dot that
represents the camera to select and move it.
The camera’s frame and field of view tints red when you select it.
5. Drag the camera frame to the position you want.
Notice that the Offset values in the Camera tab change as you move the camera. You
can also manually type values into these fields to change the position of the camera.
287
The Offset fields record the north/south,

east/west and front/back position of the
camera.
You can type values in these fields to
change the position of the camera.
See Also
288
Zooming the Camera In or Out

You change the field-of-view (FOV) of a camera when you want to zoom the camera in
or out on a character or object in your scene. Use the Camera View window to make
changes to the FOV of a camera and see how the change affects the framing of your
scene.
In this scene, we’ve changed

the zoom level of the camera to
focus on the surfer and the
shark.
When you want to give the camera one zoom level for the entire scene, your zoom level
will be static. You can also create dynamic camera zooms throughout your scene.
To zoom a camera in or out:

2. Activate the new camera by selecting the camera from the Camera List toolbar
button.
3. Select the camera. Use one of the following methods:
• Select Tools > Sceneplanning Tools > Select, and use the Select tool to
click the camera frame.
• Click the camera's name in the Timeline window.
In the Camera View window, the camera frame and background is highlighted in
red. A handle appears on the bottom of the camera frame.
4. In the Camera tab, select the Static option for the FOV Type.
When you select this option, the FOV of the camera stays constant throughout the
scene.
289
5. With the Select tool, use the handle on the bottom of the camera frame to change
the zoom level of the camera.
• Drag the handle to the left to zoom in on the scene.
• Drag the handle to the right to zoom out on the scene.
Drag the handle below the camera frame

to change the zoom level of the camera.
As you change the zoom level, the value in the Static field on the FOV tab (in the
Properties window) changes. Type a value in this field for a more precise FOV value.
When you change the FOV, you are actually changing the angle of view on your scene.
• If you make the field of view smaller, the camera represents a smaller amount
of the full scene in the same size camera, which creates the zoom effect.
• If you look in the Top View window or in the Side View window as you
change the field of view, you can see how the angle of your camera changes.
See Also
Positioning a Camera on page 285
Changing the Start Frame and Duration of a Dynamic Camera on page 293
Editing the Dynamic Zooms with the Function Editor on page 295
290
Zooming the Camera Over Time

You can change the FOV of a camera at different frames throughout your scene to
create dynamic camera zooms.
You can use the Camera View window to make changes to the FOV of a camera and
see how the changes affect the zoom level of your scene.
The camera zoom level in this animation

changes from a close-up to a long shot.
Toon Boom Studio smooths the transition

between camera zoom levels to create
high-quality camera effects.
To zoom a camera in and out during a scene:

button.
3. In the Timeline window, select the camera you want to modify. The camera
frame should appear in red in the Camera View window.
291
You can drag the handle below the

camera frame to change the zoom
level at specific frames.
4. On the Camera tab, select the Dynamic option.

When you select this option, you can change the zoom level of the camera at
different frames throughout your scene.
5. Select the start and end frame, and the duration, of the zoom change.
When you activate the Dynamic option, a thick bar appears in the camera
element in the Timeline window. This bar (set to 10 frames by default) represents
the period (start and end frame, and duration) of the FOV change.
This bar reflects the

start and end frame,
as well as the
duration, of the
camera zoom
changes.
• If you want your zoom changes to last longer than 10 frames, you must
extend this bar.
• If you want your zoom changes to have a different start and end frame, drag
the bar to the position you want it to occupy.
The camera uses the zoom level at the start and end of the zoom period for the
camera zoom level before and after the zoom period.
6. Drag the red frame slider on top of the Timeline to select the frame at which you
want the zoom to stop.
292
If you want a zoom

to reach a certain
level by frame 8,
then you would
move the red frame
slider to 8.
With the Select tool, use the handle beneath the camera frame to change the zoom
level of the camera.
• Drag the handle to the left to zoom in on the scene.
• Drag the handle to the right to zoom out on the scene.
You can also use the Function Editor to make more precise changes to the FOV.
See Also
Editing the Dynamic Zooms with the Function Editor on page 295
Zooming the Camera In or Out on page 289
Changing the Start Frame and Duration of a

Dynamic Camera
When you use a dynamic camera, it always appears at the first frame of the scene and
covers a default length of 20 frames. If you need to make a dynamic camera effect last
longer, you must modify the duration of the camera element in the Timeline window.
For example, if you want to link a zoom effect to a pan that is controlled by a peg, you
should make the zoom effect last as long as the peg.
To modify the start/end frame and duration of a dynamic camera zoom, follow one of
these steps.
To change the start/end frame of the camera:

1. Click the camera’s bar in the right panel of the Timeline window.
2. Drag the camera bar to the correct position in the Timeline window. You may
want to use the zoom slider at the bottom of the Timeline window to see more or
less of the Timeline.
293
Drag the camera’s bar

to its new position.
Use the zoom slider

to change the amount
of detail you see in
the Timeline window.
The thin red bar that appears in the Timeline window for all cameras indicates the
duration of the camera’s recording time in the scene. The red bar for the active scene
camera increases or decreases based on the duration of all visible elements in the
scene.
Even if the camera is dynamic for only a few frames (the length of the trackbar), it
continues to record until the last frame where there is a visual element.
To change the duration of a camera effect:

1. Move the pointer to the end or the beginning of the camera bar in the right panel
of the Timeline window.
2. Drag the boundary to the left or right to increase or decrease the length of the
camera. A camera must always be at least two frames in length.
You can drag the

ends of the camera
bar to change the
duration of the
camera effect.
See Also
Changing the Timeline Zoom Level on page 331
Splitting the Timeline Window in Two on page 334
294
Editing the Dynamic Zooms with the

Function Editor
You can use the Function Editor to edit camera zooms that change over time. To edit
dynamic zooming, you change the field of view (FOV) of the camera.
Let's say that you want your camera to repeat the same zoom changes over 60 frames.
In the Camera View window, you can use the camera handle to change the zoom level,
but you can not select exact FOV values with the handle. To do this, you must use the
Function Editor.
To create precise camera zooms with the Function Editor:

2. Activate the camera by selecting the camera from the Camera List toolbar button.
3. Select the camera element in the Timeline window.
4. In the Camera tab, select the Dynamic option for the FOV Type.
When you select the Dynamic option, you will be able to make the zoom level of
the camera change throughout your scene.
5. Change the start frame and duration of the camera.
6. Select Window > Function Editor to display the Function Editor window.
7. Select FOV from the Function drop-list.
The graph on the FOV tab
represents the change in the
zoom level of the camera
over time.
295
The Function Editor appears.
• The Y-axis (vertical axis) marks the angle of view that the camera has of the
scene.
• The X-axis (horizontal axis) marks the frame number.
Change the speed of the
zoom effect by changing
the shape of the plotline.
You can select different
plotline shapes from the
Reshape panel.
Each point represents the
angle the camera
reaches at a specific
frame number.
You can use the handles

on each point to change
the shape of the curve.
8. To change the angle of view of the camera, select the frame on the plotline where
you want the zoom effect to change and add a keyframe.
You can then move this key point to the angle of view you want. The shape of the
plotline identifies the speed of the change in zoom.
9. To change the speed of the zoom, you can manipulate the shape of the plotline
using options in the Reshape menu.
See Also
296
Panning and Trucking the Camera

You can create camera moves common in animation, like pans and trucks, using
cameras and pegs. For example, you can change the area of the scene you are looking
at by panning the camera. Or, you can move the camera into the scene (trucking) to
create a sense of motion through the scene.
To create camera pans and trucks, you must attach the camera to a peg. Then, you must
create east/west or north/south motion paths with the peg to create pans, or front/
back motion paths to create trucks.
From the first frame to the last the

camera follows the snowboarder all the
way down the mountain.
To pan and truck a camera:

button.
3. Add a peg to the your scene.
297
You can click the

peg button just
above the left
column in the
Timeline window to
add a peg to your
scene.
4. Change the start/end frame and duration of the peg to the values you want.
5. To attach the camera to the peg, drag the camera element on top of the peg
element in the Timeline window.
Drag the camera

on top of the peg
to attach it to a
peg.
6. Modify the peg to create north/south, east/west and front/back motion.

The camera follows the path of the peg through your scene. Cameras are affected
by a peg's motion and rotation, but not scale.
See Also
298
Chapter 9
Creating Effects
This chapter describes how you can add effects to your scenes, creating
interesting visuals, which your audience will enjoy, with ease and speed.
This chapter contains these topics:
• Additive and Multiplicative Color Changes on page 300
• Clipping Mask Effects on page 308
• Drop Shadow Effects on page 313
Additive and Multiplicative Color

Changes
Various scenes you create may require the gradual change in color of characters or
scenery because of changes to the lighting of the scene. If the sun is setting on a beach,
the colors of all of the scenery on the beach are going to darken or even redden before
they absorb a dark purple or blue tint.
In this scene,
the sun starts
to set on the
surfer,
darkening all
of the objects
in the scene.
It would be quite time-consuming to figure out the colors of each object in your scene
at each frame, and then recolor each drawing at each frame (which traditional painters
did have to do). With Toon Boom Studio, you can automate colors changing over time
by creating color changes in Color Transform elements and attaching all of the
elements you want to transform to these effects elements.
Here’s the Color Transform element

in the Timeline window.
There are two types of color transformations you can create: additive and
multiplicative.
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Chapter 9: Creating Effects
Additive Color Changes

With additive color transformations, you can add or subtract color values from
selected color channels (red, green, blue and alpha).
You would select an additive color transformation if you wanted to add or remove a
color from your drawings over time.
For example, if a fire suddenly starts in front of a character, the character would reflect
more and more red or orange as the fire starts and grows larger.
This ant is made up of the following RGB colors:
• Skin: 190, 140, 101

• Eye: 40, 97, 196
• White of the eye: 250 250, 229
• Belt: 245, 152, 31
If you create a Color Transform that adds 80 red to all of the colors, the
red value in each color would increase by 80.
When you add 80 to the red channel in the colors of the ant, each red
value increases while the values of the other channels remain the
same.
• Skin: 190 + 80 = 270 Red (the other colors remain the same)
• Eye: 40 + 80 = 120 Red
• “White” around the eye: 250 + 80 = 330
• Belt: 245 + 80 = 325
301
Multiplicative Color Changes

With multiplicative color transformations, you multiply the current values in the color
channels (red, blue, green and alpha) by selected values to create new color values.
You would select a multiplicative color transformation if you wanted to create an effect
that changes all color channels evenly.
For example, if you wanted to increase the redness of an image by 20%, you would
multiply the red value by 1.2.
The red values in this

image are now:
• Skin: 190 * 1.2 =

228
• Eye: 40 * 1.2 = 48
• White of the eye:
250 * 1.2 = 300
• Belt: 245 * 1.2 =
294
You can combine additive and multiplicative color transformations. Toon Boom
Studio calculates the final value by first applying the multiplicative value and then the
additive value. The formula looks like this:
(Color * Multiplicative Values) + Additive Values = Final Color
You may notice that the values of your color go beyond the 256 colors that are actually
displayed. Although you only see colors with values between 0 and 255, Toon Boom
Studio saves the final value and uses it when you combine multiple Color Transforms.
See Also
Changing Color Over Time on page 303
Flattening a Color Transform Effect Layer on page 306
Combining Multiple Color Transforms on page 307
302
Changing Color Over Time

You attach elements whose colors you want to change over time to Color Transform
elements. Then, you change the properties of the Color Transform elements at selected
keyframes. Toon Boom Studio calculates the color values of each image in an element
at each frame for you. You can transform any visual element - drawing, image, or
media.
You can add/subtract values from the color channels or you can multiply the current
color values by a value.
To change colors in elements over time:

1. Select Element > Add > Color Transform Effect. A new element layer appears in
2. Drag the elements you want to change on top of the Color Transform Effect
element. The elements appear indented below the Color Transform element.
Notice how the Drawing element is
indented below the Color Transform
element. It is attached to the Color
Transform element and will be
effected by the color changes you
program in it.
See the large squares on the Color Transform
trackbar? They are the keyframes for the color
change.
3. If needed, change the start time and duration of the Color Transform element.
• Drag the entire trackbar of the element to a new start frame.
• Drag the end of the trackbar to a new end frame.
4. Select the Color Transform element and use the red frame slider at the top of the
Timeline window to select the keyframe at which you want the color change to
end. Notice that the Color Transform tab opens in the Properties window.
5. In the Properties tab, make your selections for the color transformation. Drag the
slider or enter a value in a field. You can see the results of your changes
immediately in the Camera View window.
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• In the multiplicative fields, you would usually

enter a value between 0 and 2. In fact the
slider only allows you to go from 0 to 2. You
can enter a value less than 0 and greater than
2 in the fields.
• In the additive fields, you can enter a value
between -255 to + 255.
• You will only see resulting color values that
range from 0 to 255. If the final value is outside
this range, Toon Boom Studiosaves the value
and uses it for other calculations.
If you nest color transformations in multiple Color Transform elements, the real value
is used to calculate the combined effect.
When a color transform is applied on an image element or a vector element with a

bitmap fill, what you see in the Camera View window will not be the same as the
final rendered movie.
To evaluate color transforms applied to bitmaps, you must playback the rendered
animation.
See Also
Adding/Removing Keyframes from a Color Transform on page 305
Additive and Multiplicative Color Changes on page 300
Flattening a Color Transform Effect Layer on page 306
304
Adding/Removing Keyframes from a Color Transform

Let’s say that your character is holding her breath. Her skin color might go from pink
to blue. Then if she got mad, her skin might go from blue to red!
You can add keyframes to Color Transform elements to change the color values of
attached elements at different frames throughout your scene.
To add or remove keyframes from a Color Transform element:

1. In the Timeline window, select the Color Transform element.
2. Select the frame at which you want to add a keyframe using the red frame slider
at the top of the Timeline window to change the frame number.
3. In the Color Transform tab, Properties window, click the Add Keyframe
button. A white square appears in the Color Transform element at the selected
frame. You can now change the value of the color transformation.
Move the red frame slider to the frame
number where you want to add a
keyframe.
Squares appear in the trackbar for
each keyframe.
4. To remove a keyframe, select the Color Transform element, use the frame slider
to select the keyframe you want to delete, and click the Remove Keyframe
button on the Color Properties tab.
You can disable the display of color transform effects in the Camera View windows.
• Select View > Disable All Effects.
Effects will export regardless if you have this option selected.
See Also
Previewing a Scene Interactively on page 390
305
Flattening a Color Transform Effect Layer

Multiple Drawing elements attached to the Color Transform Effect may not occupy the
same front-back position. This can affect the position of the Color Transform Effect
layer.
The Flatten option at the bottom of the Color

Transform tab flattens the color transform layer. The
new depth (Z) value will be the same as the first
element attached to the effect.
By default, a Color Transform effect applied to multiple drawings will apply the effect
at the current position of each drawing.
You can activate the Flatten option the flatten the Color Transform effect layer so that
it appears at a single position. This option is available in the Color Transform tab of
the Properties window.
The position of the flattened Color Transform layer will be at the same position
as the first element attached to it, in this case, the top wave element. You can
determine the position of the elements in the Side or Top views.
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See Also
Clipping Mask Effects on page 308
Combining Multiple Color Transforms

You can combine multiple Color Transform effects to control different color changes in
your scene.
For example, if your character was blushing as the sun was setting, you would create
one Color Transform effect for the blushing, and another for the effect of the setting sun
on the whole scene.
Multiple color transformations are combined starting with the top Color Transform
elements, working down.
In the Timeline, you can

see how there are two
Color Transforms that are
secondary to a master
Color Transform element.
To combine multiple color transforms:

1. Create the secondary Color Transform effect. The secondary effect is the one that
will be influenced by the primary effect.
2. Create the primary Color Transform effect. This is the effect that will have
influence over elements as well as other Color Transform effects.
3. Attach the secondary Color Transform effect to the primary Color Transform
effect.
See Also
307
Clipping Mask Effects

Ever been to a costume party where the only thing you see beneath the masks of the
other guests is their eyes and mouth? The costume mask hides all of the face, except
those parts revealed by the holes for the eyes and the mouth.
You can create a very similar effect with moving images in Toon Boom Studio by
hiding parts of images (the clip) below a mask.
The mask in the image to the left is

shaped like a wave to reveal a clip of a
wave washing over a beach.
Combining the clipping mask

effect with other elements can
create interesting transitions
between material.
See Also
Creating Clipping Mask Effects on page 309
Modifying Masks on page 311
308
Creating Clipping Mask Effects

With Toon Boom Studio, you can create masks that allow part of an image to appear
through a shape. To create this clipping mask effect, you must create a vector shape
and attach it to the effect’s mask parameter. Then, you attach the images you want to
see through the mask to the clipping element.
Centerline strokes cannot be masks; only Brush strokes and painted areas can be
masks.
In this clipping
mask effect, the
wave_mask
element is
attached to the
mask layer. The
images that will
show through
(wave.swf) are
attached to the
Clipping element.
When displaying the clipping mask, the composite elements are rendered into one
layer. The top element inside the clip establishes the layering order with other elements
in the scene and the mask layer establishes the foreground/background property of
the entire rendered effect. To change the depth of the clipping effect, you must move
the top element in the clip.
You can mask drawing or image element types. You can also resize, rotate or move
your masks dynamically with pegs, like you do other element types.
To create a clipping mask effect:

1. Create a drawing element and draw the shape you want to use for the mask, and
fill the regions you want to use to show the layers below the mask. This is the
opposite of the concept of the party mask because it is actually the areas that are
filled with paint that will show through the bottom layers.
2. Select Element > Add > Clipping Effect. Two element layers appear in the
Timeline, the Clipping Effect layer and the Mask layer. The Mask layer is a
parameter of the Clipping Effect layer and as a result you cannot move, rename or
delete it.
3. Drag the drawing element you created to be the mask on top of the Mask layer.
When it is attached, the drawing element is indented below the Mask layer.
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You can add multiple elements to the Mask layer. However, only the top visible
drawing element will be used as the mask. Other drawing elements will be
ignored in the calculation of the mask.
If you only want the mask to hide a part of the clip for a segment of the clip’s
duration, you must create a large drawing that will reveal the full clip for the
duration of its exposure. If there is no drawing in the mask layer, then Toon Boom
Studio assumes that all of the holes in the mask are filled, and that there is
nothing that you want to see beneath it.
4. Drag the elements you want to mask on top of the Clipping Effect layer. The
masked elements are indented below the Clipping Effect layer.
You must drag the mask you want to use (the
vector drawing with painted zones identifying
the areas you want to show through) on top
of the Mask element.
Then you drag all elements you want to be
affected by the mask on top of the Clipping
Effect element.
You can disable the display of mask effects in the Camera View windows.
• Select View > Disable All Effects. Effects will export regardless if you have
this option selected.
In the Timeline window, you can also hide the mask layers beneath a Clipping Effect
element to make it easier to work with elements.
• To hide the mask layers in all Clipping Effect elements, select View >
Effects > Hide All Effects Parameters.
• To show the mask layers in the selected Clipping Effect element, View >
Effects > Effect Parameters.
• To show the mask layers in all Clipping Effect elements, select View >
Effects > Show All Effects Parameters.
See Also
Modifying Masks on page 311
310
Modifying Masks
You can change the rotation and size of masks just like you would any other element.
You can even use pegs to change masks dynamically throughout the scene.
However, if you just want to reposition a mask, it can be a little bit tricky. In the
following example, the clip image fills the mask. If you try to move the mask as it is set
up now, Toon Boom Studio will move the clip. To move the mask, you must hide the
clip.
This is a mask created from a drawing of a wave,

which is revealing an image of a wave beneath it.
If you try to move the mask,

you will end up moving the
clip beneath it.
To move a mask:
1. Use the Show/Hide buttons in the element list to hide the clip layer.
We hid the wave.swf media element,

which is the clip in this effect.
2. Use the Select tool to move the mask.
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3. Show the clip layer so that you can see the layers beneath the mask.
Here’s a tip that also helps with the selection and modification of masks.
1. Add a peg and move it just outside of the mask’s area.
2. Attach the mask to the peg.
3. Use the circle that represents the peg as a handle for moving the mask.
See Also
Scaling Elements on page 211
Rotating Elements on page 216
312
Drop Shadow Effects

You can easily add a shadow to a drawing or a group of drawings in your scene.
Shadows can add the feeling of depth to drawings and can also influence the mood of
your scene.
You can apply this effect to a single
drawing (left) or to multiple
drawings, such as the drawings that
form this cut-out character (right).
The opacity of the cut-out
character’s shadow has been
decreased in the Drop Shadow
properties to give it a softer look.
With Toon Boom Studio, you can automatically add a shadow to any drawing or
selection of drawings and give it a look that suits your scene. Instead of adding to each
current drawing or creating a new set of drawings, you can simply apply the drop
shadow effect to the drawings you select.
Once you add a drop shadow, you can skew it, reposition it and change its color and
transparency levels.
See Also
313
Creating Drop Shadow Effects

You can add a Drop Shadow Effect element to your timeline. The element layers that
you attach to it comprise the drop shadow object.
To create a drop shadow effect:

1. Select Element > Add > Drop Shadow Effect. A new Drop Shadow Effect layer is
added in the Timeline.
2. Drag the drawing element that you want to add the drop shadow to on top of the
Drop Shadow Effect layer. When it is attached, the drawing element is indented
below the effect layer.
The Drop Shadow Effect element is also displays in the Camera View.
You can use the Show/Hide buttons in the

Timeline to turn off the display of all
elements except the Drawing element and
the Drop Shadow Effect layers, while you
are working on the positioning of your
shadow.
3. Use the skew handles of the Drop Shadow Effect to determine the skew angle of
the drop shadow. Use the round handle to move the shadow.
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4. You can also change the color of the shadow and other properties. Select the Drop
Shadow Effect element in the Timeline to display the Drop Shadow tab in the
Properties window.
• Click the color swatch to select a new drop shadow color.

• Use the slider or enter an alpha value to select the level of Opacity of the
shadow. If you have multiple elements attached to the Drop Shadow Effect
element, the alpha value is for the entire shadow effect, and will not create an
undesired additive transparency effect for overlapping elements.
• Activate the Hide Elements option to display the shadow only, but not the
original Drawing element(s).
See Also
315
316
Chapter 10
Organizing Elements and Timing
This chapter explains how to organize the element layers in your scene, as well
as work out the timing of their contents.
• Exposure Sheet and Timeline Windows on page 318
• Layering Elements on page 335
• Sequencing and Timing Drawings and Images on page 345
Exposure Sheet and Timeline

Windows
The Exposure Sheet and Timeline windows are your worksheets for organizing,
sequencing and timing the contents of your animation. Although both serve similar
purposes, they display layering, sequence and timing information differently.
The Exposure Sheet displays drawing, image,
sound and media layers in columns.
The Timeline window displays all

element layers in rows.
Exposure Sheet Timeline
Description Based on the traditional animators Shows each element in your

paper exposure sheet used to animation as a layer with a track
determine the elements and timing of displaying what appears at each
their animation. frame.
Frames Each row represents a frame. Each column represents a frame.
Compositing Far left column is the top layer. Top row is the top layer.
Order of Layers
Cell Display Displays the full name of drawing and Indicates each new drawing or
image files appearing at each frame of image in an element, but not the
your animation. Displays thumbnails full name.
and lip synch information.
318
Chapter 10: Organizing Elements and Timing
See Also
Changing the Cell Display in the Exposure Sheet on page 325
Showing/Hiding Elements
Sometimes it helps to hide elements so that you can focus on other ones.
• You may want to hide elements in the Drawing View so that you see only
specific layers in the Auto Light Table.
• You may want to hide elements in Sceneplanning views so that it is easier for
you to lay out others in the 3D scene space.
The show/hide status of elements determines whether they are rendered for playback
or export.
• The show/hide status of elements in the Exposure Sheet controls the
rendering and playback of elements from the Exposure Sheet and Drawing
View.
• The show/hide status of elements in the Timeline controls the rendering and
playback of elements from the Timeline or the Sceneplanning Views.
You can show/hide elements using the commands in the Element > Display menu.
You can also use the Show/Hide buttons in the Exposure Sheet and Timeline
windows.
To show/hide elements in the Drawing View:
1. In the Exposure Sheet, click the Toggle Element List button to open the
Element List panel.
2. Click the check box next to the element name in the Element List panel.
• When the check box is selected, the element appears in the Drawing View
and Exposure Sheet windows, and when you render or playback from the
Exposure Sheet.
• When the check box is deselected, the element does not appear in the
Drawing View and Exposure Sheet windows, and when you render or play
back from the Exposure Sheet.
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Use the Show/Hide buttons in

the Element List panel to select
the elements you want to
appear in the Drawing View.
To show/hide elements in the Sceneplanning views:

• Click the check box next to the element name in the Element List panel.
D When the check box is selected, the element appears in all of the View
and when you render or playback from the Timeline.
D When the check box is deselected, the element does not appear in the
View windows or when you render or playback from the Timeline.
Use the Show/Hide
buttons to select the
elements you want to
appear in Sceneplanning
view windows.
When you have hidden pegs, you can show them without changing their show/hide
status in the element list in the Timeline window.
• Select View > Pegs > Show All Pegs. All pegs become visible in the View
windows.
See Also
320
Displaying Selected Elements Only in

Sceneplanning Views
When you are working in the Drawing View, only a single element drawing can be
displayed at the current frame. In the Sceneplanning view windows, all elements that
are visible at the selected frame appear.
If you want to work on a single element or set of elements, you can hide unrelated
elements and then redisplay them later. That doesn’t sound like a big deal, but if you
have many elements, it can be time consuming to work around them.
When you just want to work

on the motion path of a
particular character, you
don’t need to see all of the
other elements in a scene.
Now that some of the

elements are hidden, you can
see the motion path of the
character clearly.
Toon Boom Studio allows you to hide all other elements except the ones you select
using Solo mode. When this mode is active, it temporarily hides all unselected
elements from the View windows, allowing you to work on only the elements you
want.
321
To hide elements in your View windows with Solo mode:
1. Select the element(s) you want to show. You can either select a single element or a
range of elements (using [Shift]+ click).
2. Click the Solo mode button located at the top-left of the Timeline window.
When Solo mode is active, the Solo mode button appears inverted and the
hidden element layers appear white in the Timeline window.
Only these highlighted elements will

appear in the Sceneplanning View
windows.
When you are in Solo mode, you can still display or hide elements from the View
windows:
• If you want to temporarily display an element that is not one of the selected
elements, select it in the Timeline window.
• You can use the Show/Hide buttons to hide or display elements currently in
the Solo mode.
See Also
322
Adding Element/Cell Notes

With a paper exposure sheet, animators can scribble notes on the paper about the
elements in the scene and the action.
Toon Boom Studio makes it possible to add electronic notes to your elements and cells
so that you can record and save ideas about your animation.
In the Timeline, only

element notes are
identified.
Cell and element note icons

appear next to the names.
If you clone an element, Toon Boom Studio also clones all of the element and cell notes.
However, if you copy and paste an annotated cell, the note does not appear on the
pasted cell.
To add a note to an element or a cell:

1. Select the element or cell you want to add a note to.
You can select an element in either the Exposure Sheet window or in the
Timeline window. However, you must use the Exposure Sheet to add cell notes.
2. Select one of the following commands.
• To add an element note, select Element > Add Element Note.
• To add a cell note, select Element > Cell > Add Cell Note.
The Note dialog box opens.
3. Type the note you want to add to the element/cell and click OK when you are
done.
The element or cell displays a small note icon to identify the note.
To update an element or cell note:

1. Select one of the following commands.
• To update an element note, select Element > Update Element Note.
• To update a cell note, select Element > Cell > Update Cell Note.
The Note dialog box opens.
323
2. Update the note and click OK.

If you remove all of the text from the note, Toon Boom Studio will delete it.
See Also
Viewing Cell and Element Notes on page 324
Viewing Cell and Element Notes

You can view element and cell notes in the Exposure Sheet, but you can only view
element notes in the Timeline because you cannot see individual cells in this window.
To view a cell or element note:

• Pass your pointer over the note. The contents of the note will appear in a pop-
up.
Click a note to display it. You can
turn on and off note display by
clicking the Contextual Menu
button and selecting View > Notes.
See Also
324
Changing the Cell Display in the Exposure

Sheet
You can customize how the Exposure Sheet window displays the contents of elements
by clicking the Contextual Menu button and selecting the option you want from the
View menu. If the option is active, a checkmark appears next to it:
• Thumbnails: when active, a graphic representation of the contents appears.
When deactivated, the cell displays only the cell name.
Thumbnails active Thumbnails in-active

If the cell contains an image, drawing or media link, a thumbnail appears. If
the cell contains a sound, the sound’s wave form or an example of the lip
position that would make the sound at that frame is displayed.
• Exposure: when active, a vertical line appears in the cells to indicate that the
previous cell label applies to the current cell. When deactivated, the cell
repeats the cell name for the length of the exposure.
325
Exposure active Exposure in-active
• Name: when active, the cell displays the name of the element before the cell
name, which is often a number.
When deactivated, only the cell name appears in the cell.
Name active Name inactive

• Notes: when active, an element or cell annotation appears in a pop-up
window when you place your pointer over the annotated cell.
When deactivated, the pop-up window does not appear. However, you can
Right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) on the element or cell and
select Update Cell Note to view (or update) the note.
See Also
Resizing Columns in the Exposure Sheet on page 327
326
Resizing Columns in the Exposure Sheet

You can adjust the width of columns in the Exposure Sheet window to make it easier
to see more element columns or more of the names of elements and cells.
To resize columns in the Exposure Sheet window:

1. Drag the sides of the columns to their new size. You must drag the element title.
As you resize columns their titles,

or the labels of their cells, might
become hidden.
But, you can see more columns if
the columns are narrow.
2. To reset the column width, click the Contextual Menu button and select
View > Reset Column Width.
See Also
Changing the Color of an Element

As you add elements to the Exposure Sheet window and Timeline window, Toon
Boom Studio assigns a default color to each element layer or column based on its type.
You can change the color of specific elements to help you group and identify elements.
For example, if you drew a character on several layers, say the body in one layer, the
head in another and the legs in another, you could give all of these layers a color
different from the defaults to help you identify them easily in the Exposure Sheet
window and Timeline.
327
The element color appears next to the
element name in the Exposure Sheet
window and for the trackbar color in the
Timeline window.
For example, drawings are labeled in dark
green by default.
To customize the color of an element:

1. Select the element.
2. Select Element > Display > Change Color. The color picker opens.
3. Select the color you want to use for the selected element and click OK. The
selected column now appears in the new color.
4. To reset the element colors to their default settings, select Element > Display >
Default Color.
See Also
Changing the Default Colors of Elements

Toon Boom Studio uses color to help you distinguish each element type in the
Exposure Sheet window and Timeline window.
The element colors appear in the Exposure Sheet and Timeline window.
328
You can change these default colors using the Preferences dialog box, which applies
the changes in your current Toon Boom Studio session and any other animation set you
create from then onwards.
To change the default color assigned to elements:

3. Click the swatch next to the feature you want to change. The color picker opens.
4. Select the color you wish to use and click OK.
5. When you define all of the default colors, click OK in the Preferences dialog box.
See Also
Selecting Units of Measure on page 57
329
Changing the Timeline Track Color

By default, the background color of tracks in the Timeline window provide a high
contrast with the elements that appear on top of it.
Track color
Element color
You can change the background color of selected tracks in the Timeline window so that
you can easily distinguish a specific element or a group of elements from others.
To customize the color of a track in the Timeline window:

1. Select the element whose track color you want to change.
2. Select Element > Display > Background Color. The color picker opens.
3. Select the color you want to use for the selected track and click OK.
4. To revert the track’s color, select Element > Display > Default Color.
See Also
330
Changing the Timeline Zoom Level

You can change the zoom level of the Timeline window so that you can see more of the
timing of elements in the Timeline window or get a more global view of the scene.
For example, if you wanted to see when drawings in an element change, you can
increase the zoom level until you can clearly see the vertical lines that represent new
cells in the Timeline window.
Changing the zoom level of the

Timeline reveals more about the
timing of your scene, exposing
details or giving you the “big
picture”.
To change the detail level in the Timeline window:
• Drag the Zoom slider either to the left (zoom out) or to the right (zoom in).
You’ll notice that as you change the zoom level, the amount of detail changes
in stages.
See Also
Changing the Current Frame in the Timeline on page 332
Displaying Feet and Frames in the Timeline on page 333
331
Changing the Current Frame in the Timeline

The frame marker in the Timeline window identifies the frame you are viewing. When
you play your scene, the frame marker moves across the Timeline window.
The currently selected

frame is indicated by the
red frame marker and is
in the title bar of the
window.
To view the images at a specific frame, you can change the frame marker’s position in
To change the current frame, do one of the following:

• Drag the frame marker to the frame you want to view.
• Click the frame marker at the top of the Timeline window. The red frame
marker appears at the point you click and the elements at that frame appear
in the View window.
• To advance one frame, press [S]. To rewind one frame, press [A].
• Right-click (Windows) or [Ctrl]-click (MacOS) the frame bar and select
Change Current Frame.
In the Change Current Frame dialog box, type the frame number you want to
see and click OK. The red frame marker now appears on the frame you
selected and the elements at that frame appear in the View window.
See Also
Displaying Feet and Frames in the Timeline on page 333
332
Displaying Feet and Frames in the Timeline

Traditional animation for TV and film is often measured in feet. The number of feet of
film measurement is a handy way for animators to judge their output based. There are
16 frames per foot of film. If you are accustomed to working in a traditional
environment, animating for film and TV, the “feet and frames” measurement on the
Timeline window might be a more familiar reference point for you to use.
To display “feet and frames” in the Timeline window:

Select how you want the Timeline to mark time from the Time Measurement drop-list.
3. From the Time Measurement drop-list, select Feet and Frames and click OK.
When displaying “feet and
frames” in the Timeline
window, the first number
indicates the number of feet
and the second number
indicates the number of
frames in the current foot.
333
See Also
Splitting the Timeline Window in Two

You can use the Zoom slider to view more or less of the Timeline window, but if
your scene is very long, you would still have to use the slider to display the beginning
and end of the scene.
That’s why the Timeline window features the Split Window button. This button
allows you to split the Timeline window into two sections, allowing you to view two
sections of the scene independently.
Split Window
button
Change the size

of each section
by dragging the
border bar inside
the Timeline
window.
To split the Timeline window into two sections:
1. Click the Split Window button in the top-right of the Timeline window. A
border bar appears on the extreme right of the Timeline window.
2. Place your pointer over the bar that separates the two sections so that your
pointer changes to a resize pointer.
3. Drag the bar to its new position.
The new section of the Timeline window has its own scroll bars and Zoom slider.
See Also
334
Layering Elements
The layering order of elements determines how they are stacked (the composition
order) when you play back or export your animation from each mode.
• In the Exposure Sheet, columns on the left are rendered on top of columns on
the right when you export an Exposure Sheet scene.
• When you export a full movie or scene, elements in rows on top of the
Timeline list appear layered on top of the elements below. Of course, when
your elements change relative front/back position based on layout and
pegged motion effects, that ultimately determines the composition order of
the elements.
Any changes you make to your scene’s contents in the Exposure Sheet appears in the
Timeline window, except for the show/hide status of the element.
There are eight element types you can add to your animation:
• Drawing : vector drawing files you create or import.

Drawing elements appear in both the Exposure Sheet and the Timeline.
• Image : bitmap graphics that you import into your animation.
Image elements appear in both the Exposure Sheet and the Timeline.
• Sound : sound files you import into your animation.
Sound elements appear in both the Exposure Sheet and the Timeline.
• Media : multimedia files that you link into your animation.

You use the media element type to make a link from your animation to a
multimedia file.
Media elements appear in both the Exposure Sheet and the Timeline.
• Peg : create motion, scaling, and rotation changes over time.
Peg elements appear only in the Timeline. You can modify peg elements in
this view window.
• Camera : As in traditional animation and film production, you use
cameras to “film” the action in a scene. You can use camera elements to zoom
in and zoom out on your scene by changing the field of view (FOV), create
pans, move closer or farther (truck in and out) from the action in your scene.
Toon Boom Studio can film a scene with only one camera. You can add
additional cameras as a reference, but Toon Boom Studio can only use the
camera you select from the Camera List toolbar button to film your scene. On
Windows, this drop-list appears on the Scene View toolbar. You must create
all of the camera effects you want to use for the final movie in one camera.
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The default “scene camera” does not appear in the Timeline window, but any
cameras you add will appear in the element list. You can modify camera
elements in Sceneplanning view windows.
• Color Transform Effects : change the color of element gradually from

keyframe to keyframe.
Color Transform Effects elements appear only in the Timeline.
• Clipping Effects : display only part of an image, using a mask to identify

the areas on the image you want to “show through”. When you add this
element, Toon Boom Studio adds a Mask parameter element to control the
masking image.
Clipping Effects elements appear only in the Timeline.
• Drop Shadow Effects : displays shadows for attached Drawing elements.

Drop Shadow Effects elements appear only in the Timeline.
See Also
336
Adding Many Elements to a Scene

By default, there is one drawing, one peg and one camera element in new animation
sets. When you want to add new content to your animation or add different types of
content (such as bitmaps or sounds), you must add new elements to your scene.
To add elements to your scene:

1. Select Element > Add > Elements. The New Elements dialog box opens.
• You can also open this dialog box by clicking the Contextual Menu button
in the Exposure Sheet window and selecting Add > Elements, or by clicking
the Add button in the Timeline window.
Use the New Elements dialog box to

enter information about the elements
you are adding.
2. Select the type of element from the Type drop-menu. You have the following
choices.
• Drawing: stores vector drawings you create in Toon Boom Studio, import
from Adobe Illustrator, or create by vectorizing bitmaps.
• Image: contains static bitmap images you import in the element (usually a
background image).
• Sound: contains audio files you import to the scene.
• Peg: allows you to change an element’s position, size, or angle over time.
• Camera: adds another perspective to a scene.
• Media: contains multimedia files you link to the scene.
• Color Transform Effect: allows you to change the colors in an element at
keyframes.
• Clipping Effect: allows you to hide certain parts of a clip with a mask. When
you select this option, Toon Boom Studio adds a Mask parameter layer,
which you use to control the mask parameter.
• Drop Shadow Effect: allows you to add a shadow to an element or group of
elements.
3. Type the name of the new element(s) in the Name field.
• If you are adding one element, Toon Boom Studio labels the column with the
selected element name.
337
• If you add more than one element, Toon Boom Studio labels each with the
selected element name followed by a sequential number (starting at one).
4. Type the number of elements you want to add in the Number field. You can also
use the arrow buttons to increase or decrease the number.
Toon Boom Studio adds the selected number of elements to the Exposure Sheet
window and the Timeline window with their default names, but you can rename them
at any time.
See Also
Duplicating Elements on page 342
Changing the Layering Order of Elements

You can change the order of elements to determine how they are layered for playback
and rendering.
• In the Exposure Sheet, elements to the left are layered on top of elements to
the right.
• In the Timeline, top layers are layered on top of the lower layers.
To change the layering order of elements in the Exposure Sheet window, do one of the
following:
• Press [Ctrl] (Windows) or [Command] (MacOS) and drag the element to its
new layering position in the columns of the Exposure Sheet. In the Exposure
Sheet, element columns to the left are on top of element columns to the right.
• Drag the element to its new layering position in the Element List panel. In the
Element List panel, elements at the top of the list are on top of elements at the
bottom of the list.
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A line appears
between the
existing elements
to indicate where
the element will
appear.
You can also use the following commands in the Element > Arrange menu:
• Bring to Front: move the element on top of all elements.
• Bring Forward: move the element in front of the element currently on top of
it.
• Send to Back: move the element behind all elements.
• Send Backward: move the element behind the element currently below it.
When you are changing the layering order from the Exposure Sheet or using the
Arrange commands, if the element you are trying to change is the child of an
dynamic element, such as a peg or an effect, you will only be able to reorder layers
within the parent element.
You will not be able to reorder layers if doing so requires Toon Boom Studio to
detach the element from its parent to change its layering order.
To change the composition order of elements in the Timeline window, use one of the
following methods:
• Drag the element to its new layering position in the Timeline window.
D In the Timeline list, click the name of the element you want to move.
D Drag the element to its new position in the layering order. Your pointer
changes to indicate if the element can be placed in the position you have
selected.
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You can also force elements to appear behind or in-front of other elements in your
animation using the options of the Type list in the Drawing tab, Image tab, and Media
tab. When an element is in a peg hierarchy, the Type setting applies to its position
within the peg hierarchy.
• Foreground: Forces the element to appear in-front of other elements. When
you have more than one element set to Foreground, the layering order in the
Timeline determines the order of the Foreground elements.
• Normal: Allows the elements to follow the layering order of the Timeline
order or the front/back position in the Offset field in the Properties window.
If you select this option, then you must make sure that your foreground and
background images are in the right layering order in the Timeline list.
• Background: Forces the element to appear behind other elements. When you
have more than one element set to Background, then the layering order in the
Timeline determines the order of the Background elements.
We made the clouds a

background element so that no
matter how characters or camera
move in the scene, the clouds will
always appear in the back.
See Also
340
Renaming Elements
At any time, you can rename elements to more accurately reflect the contents they
hold. If you change the name of a drawing or image element, Toon Boom Studio
changes the names of all drawings and images in the element and in your animation
set folder.
To rename an element:
1. Select the element you want to rename.
2. Select Element > Rename Element. The Rename Element dialog box opens.
The name of the dialog box actually changes depending on the type of element
you are modifying. For example, if you select an Image element, the dialog box
opens as Rename Image Element.
3. Type the name for the element in the Element Name field and click OK.
Toon Boom Studio renames the selected element and if the element contains drawings
or images, their names change to reflect the new element name.
See Also
Layering Elements on page 335
Naming and Renaming a Cell on page 356
Renaming a Drawing or Image on page 357
Deleting Elements
As you develop your animation, you may need to delete unnecessary elements. For
example, when you complete your final drawings of a character, you can delete the
elements that contained the roughs.
To delete an element from your animation:

1. Select the element you want to remove.
2. Select Element > Delete Element. Toon Boom Studio removes the element and its
contents from your animation and from your animation set folder.
If you want to only hide an element in a scene, you can temporarily toggle it on and
off. This not only hides it from the Drawing View/Camera View window, but also
from the rendering process too!
See Also
341
Duplicating Elements
By duplicating elements, you can quickly build up your scene by reusing existing
content. You can duplicate all element types.
Unlike cloned elements, duplicated elements are not linked to the original. You can
modify one without modifying the other. Also unlike cloned elements, when you
duplicate elements, you increase the file size of your animation.
To duplicate elements:
1. In the Timeline window, select the element you want to duplicate.
2. Select Element > Duplicate Element.
A copy of the element appears in the Timeline window. You can modify either the
original or duplicate without modifying the other.
See Also
342
Cloning Elements
You can clone elements when you want to reuse the contents of an element, but create
a different effect, like with the timing of the same drawings or with an element’s
placement in the 3D space.
Unlike duplicated elements, cloned elements and their original are linked. They both
refer to the same content files in the animation set folder. When you modify one, the
other is also modified.
Let’s say you want to create the skyline of a city. Rather than drawing hundreds of
buildings, you could draw a few, clone them and then reposition the clones in space
and flip them, to create a dense scene from few drawings.
In this example, we cloned some

buildings three times, then
positioned them throughout
the 3D space to create a
deep city scene with a
minimal amount of drawings.
You can clone the following element types:

• Drawings
• Images
• Media
• Sounds
• Pegs
• Color Transform Effects
• Drop Shadow Effects
The contents of the cloned elements are shared, but you can change some of the
properties of the clones without affecting the other clones.
• Drawing and Image Elements: the original and the cloned element both
reference the same directory of files. Cloning drawing and image elements
does not increase the file size of your final animation.
D If you change a drawing or image, all clones are updated with the new
drawing or image.
343
D If you add new drawings or images to the clones, they do not appear in
the other clones. However, they are available to the other clones by
renaming a cell with the name of the drawing or image.
D You can change the exposure of drawings and images without affecting
the clones.
• Media: cloned media share the same content. You can reposition and change
the start frame of media elements without modifying other clones.
• Pegs: the cloned pegs share control points and keyframes, and you can
change the position of the peg in the 3D Sceneplanning space without
affecting the clones. Cloning peg elements does not increase the file size of
your final animation.
• Sounds: cloned sounds are exact copies. You can change any property in the
sound clones without affecting other clones. Cloning sound elements does
not increase the file size of your final animation.
• Color Transform Effects: clones are exact copies of the original, with the
same keyframe and values. Changes to the keyframe values in any clone
changes all other clones. You can change the start time of any clone without
changing the others.
• Drop Shadow Effects: clones share the same the same color, position
properties and element display setting. You can change the properties of any
clone and change it in all other cloned Drop Shadow Effect elements.
To clone an element:
1. Select the element you want to clone. You can only select one element at a time.
2. Select Element > Clone Element.
A clone of the selected element appears in the Exposure Sheet window and in the
Timeline window.
See Also
Duplicating Elements on page 342
344
Sequencing and Timing Drawings

and Images
Your animation project folder contains the contents of your animation.
If you open your animation project folder (Windows) or display the contents of the
Toon Boom Studio project directory (MacOS), you will see the contents of your
animation.
• Each scene has its own folder in the root of the animation project folder.
• Also at the root of the animation set folder are the sound and template
folders, which provide storage for the entire animation project.
• In each scene folder are bitmap and drawing folders, which store every static
and vector image in the scene. The names of drawing and image files are
based on the name of the element and their order of creation.
These are all of the

drawings in Scene-001
of this animation.
Cell labels in the Exposure Sheet let you know what will appear at each frame.
The cell label displays the

element name plus the cell
name, which tells Toon
Boom Studio what drawing
to display from the
animation project folder.
345
The Timeline window and the Cells tab of the Properties window let you know what
image or drawing is displayed at each frame.
The Timeline does not display which drawing or image is in
use, but you can use the Cells tab to figure out the exact
name of the drawing or image at a selected frame.
You can use the red slider to The vertical bar

see all of the drawings and indicates every frame
images in an element, and where there is a new
change the one that is displayed drawing or image.
at the current frame.
See Also
Inserting a Range of Numbered Cells on page 347
Inserting Blank Cells in an Element on page 353
Cutting, Copying and Pasting Cells on page 357
Clearing a Drawing from a Cell on page 362
Inserting Blank Frames in a Scene on page 355
Deleting Cells from Elements on page 363
Labelling Cells in the Exposure Sheet

You can select a cell and start drawing right away, and Toon Boom Studio will
automatically number the selected cell incrementally.
You can label cells manually in the Exposure Sheet if you want to label your cells before
you start drawing or if you don’t want to use incremental numbers to label your cells
(and name your drawings and images).
To label cells in the Exposure Sheet:

1. Double-click a cell so that the label becomes editable.
2. Type a value for the cell’s name in the field.
346
3. Press [Enter] (Windows) or [Return] (MacOS). Toon Boom Studio advances to the
next cell so that you can edit its label.
See Also
Changing the Cell Display in the Exposure Sheet on page 325
Inserting a Range of Numbered Cells

If you want to preplan the number of frames an animation sequence should take, you
can label a range of cells before you start drawing. For example, if you want to create
a walk cycle in 10 frames, you can label those 10 frames first and then add the drawings
to them later.
Inserting named cells labels the cells in the

selected element with numbers that
increase from the last cell.
You can add numbered cells to the selected element in the Exposure Sheet window or
Timeline window. However, you can only insert numbered cells in the Exposure Sheet
window.
You can only add a range of named cells to drawing elements, because you’ll be
using Toon Boom Studio to create the drawings for that element.
Because the other elements like Sound and Media rely on files you create outside of
Toon Boom Studio, the system automatically assigns the cell name when you import
them.
To insert a range of numbered cells:

1. Select the cell where you want to start the range of numbered cells
347
2. Select Element > Cell > Insert Cell. The Insert Cells dialog box opens.
3. Type the number of cells you want to insert in the Number field. You can also use
the arrow buttons or the arrow keys to increase or decrease this value.
4. Select Named Cells checkbox to automatically number the cells in this element.
Toon Boom Studio reads the last numbered cell for this element and starts the
new range with the next number.
5. Select where you insert these new cells by selecting one of the following radio
buttons:
• Before: inserts the cells before the row you selected.
• After: inserts the cells after the row you selected.
6. Click OK to add the cell(s) to your Exposure Sheet window.
There is an even quicker way to add numbered cells to your Exposure Sheet window.
1. Select a range of cells by pressing [Shift] and clicking another cell.
2. Right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) on the selected cells and
select Insert Cell from the pop-up menu. Toon Boom Studio automatically
adds numbered cells in the range you select.
See Also
348
Changing the Timing (Exposure) of

Drawings and Images
The amount of time a single frame appears on screen depends on the animation’s
frame rate. If the frame rate is 12 frames-per-second (fps), then each frame appears for
1/12th of a second.
You can change the exposure of a drawing, image or media to increase or decrease the
amount of time it spends on screen. For example, you can extend the exposure of a
drawing from 1 to 3, the drawing will appear on screen for 3 times as long.
To extend the exposure of a drawing or image in the Exposure Sheet:

1. Click a labelled cell in the Exposure Sheet.
2. Hold the mouse and drag the bottom of the cell to the last frame you want the
drawing or image to appear in.
3. Release the mouse button.
349
To change the exposure of a drawing or image:

1. Select the cell of the drawing, image or media element.
• In the Exposure Sheet window, click the cell.
• In the Timeline window, click the cell. If the Single Cell Selection preference
is not selected, press the [Alt] (Windows) or [Option] (MacOS) button as you
select a cell.
2. Select one of the following commands from the Element > Cell menu.
• Set Exposure to 1: appears in one frame (the default setting)
• Set Exposure to 2: appears in two frames.
• Set Exposure to 3: appears in three frames.
• Set Exposure: to set another exposure time. This command opens the Set
Exposure dialog box.
• Add Exposure: adds one to the drawing, image or media’s current exposure
time.
• Remove Exposure: removes one exposure from the drawing or images
current exposure time.
• Extend Exposure: adds a selected number of frames to the current exposure
time. This command opens the Extend Exposure dialog box.
Here’s a shortcut for extending the exposure in the Exposure Sheet window.
1. Selecting the cell that you want to extend the previous drawing’s exposure
time to.
2. Select Element > Cell > Extend Exposure.
350
See Also
Swapping Drawings in an Element

Using the Cells tab on the Properties dialog box, you can change which drawing
appears at the selected frame with another one from the element’s directory.
For example, let’s say that you have scrubbed a voice track in the Timeline and you
want to change a drawing assigned at the frame with another mouth drawing.
Just use the Cells tab to flip through the drawings in the element and pick the one you
want to appear at the selected frame.
To change which drawing appears at the selected frame:

1. In the Timeline or Exposure Sheet, select the frame that contains the drawing you
want to change.
This is the drawing that appears at frame 7.
2. In the Cells tab, use the slider to flip through the drawings in the element.
351
Use the slider to flip

through the drawings
in an element and
select the drawing you
want to display at the
frame.
Toon Boom Studio changes the cell label at the selected frame and all consecutive
frames that the original drawing appeared in so that the drawing.
See Also
352
Changing an Element’s Start Time in the

Timeline
The Timeline window makes it easy to change an element’s timing in a scene.
You can change when an element starts or stops in the Timeline window simply by
dragging it from one position to another.
Drag the element’s trackbar to
a new position to change its
start/end time.
You can select and drag
multiple elements at the same
time.
The blue Arrow button next to the peg determines if changes to the start time of the
parent peg will affect child elements. See “Using Keyframes and Timeline Properties”
on page 228.
See Also
Inserting Blank Cells in an Element

You can insert blank cells between cells with content. For these blank cells, nothing
from the element will appear in the frame.
353
To insert a range of blank cells in an element:

1. Select the cell where you want to start the range of numbered cells
2. Select Element > Cell > Insert Cell. The Insert Cells dialog box opens.
3. Type the number of cells you want to insert in the Number field. You can also use
the arrow buttons or the arrow keys to increase or decrease this value.
4. Make sure you deselect the Named Cells checkbox so that the cells appear blank.
5. Select where you insert these new cells by selecting one of the following radio
buttons:
• Before: inserts the cells before the row you selected.
• After: inserts the cells after the row you selected.
6. Click OK to add the cell(s) to your Exposure Sheet window.
See Also
354
Inserting Blank Frames in a Scene

When you need to add time to an entire scene (across all of the elements), you can add
frames to the Exposure Sheet window or Timeline window. This is useful if you need
to add time to the middle of a scene. For example, if you want to have a complete stop
to all visual and audio content for 5 frames. scenes:
We added five frames to all elements.

You can see what happened by
comparing the before/after shots of the
Exposure Sheet and Timeline.
To insert blank frames in a scene:

1. Select the frame where you want to insert the new frames.
• In the Exposure Sheet window, click a cell or a frame.
• In the Timeline window, use the red frame slider to advance to the frame
number.
2. Select Element > Cell > Insert Cell from the pop-up menu. The Insert cells dialog
box opens.
355
3. Type the number of frames you want to insert in the Number field.
You can also use the arrow buttons or the arrow keys to increase or decrease this
value.
4. Select In all Elements checkbox to add frames to the entire scene at the frame
number.
5. Select where you insert these new frames by selecting one of the following radio
buttons:
• Before: inserts the frames before the row you selected.
• After: inserts the frames after the row you selected.
6. Click OK to add the frame(s).
See Also
Inserting Blank Cells in an Element on page 353
Naming and Renaming a Cell

You can change the name of a cell to either:
• Create a new drawing file in the animation set folder
• Load a different drawing from the animation set folder.
For example, if there is already a drawing called dude-02 and you type 02 in
the dude element, the dude-02 drawing appears in the frame you selected.
To name or rename a cell:

1. In the Exposure Sheet, double-click the cell that you want to modify. The cell
becomes editable.
356
2. Type the name you want to assign to that cell and press [Enter] (Windows) or
[Return] (MacOS). The next cell in the element becomes editable.
3. Press [Esc] to quit the edit mode.
See Also
Layering Elements on page 335
Clearing a Drawing from a Cell on page 362
Renaming a Drawing or Image

If you want to give an existing drawing or image file a new name, you need to use the
Rename command.
To rename a drawing or image:

1. Right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) the drawing or image you want
to rename and select Rename Drawing/Image from the pop-up menu. The
Rename Drawing/Image dialog box opens.
2. Type the new name in the Drawing/Image Name field and click OK. If the name
you type already exists, you must select a new name.
See Also
Cutting, Copying and Pasting Cells

As you build content, you will want to reuse as much as possible to reduce your work,
and hopefully reduce the file size of your animation.
• If you cut or copy and paste a cell in the same element, Toon Boom Studio
will paste the original cell label, accessing the original drawing or image in
the animation set folder.
To reduce your work and keep the file size of your final Adobe Flash movie
small, you can to reuse the same drawing at different frames.
• If you paste a new object, Toon Boom Studio copies the contents of the
original cell to the new cell and creates a new file in your animation set folder.
You can use the paste new object feature to use the contents of one cell for the
basis of another drawing.
357
To cut, copy and paste cells:
1. Select the cell(s) you want to copy from the element column in the Exposure Sheet
window.
2. Select Edit > Cut or Edit > Copy.
• Select Copy to leave a copy of the cell at its original frame.
• Select Cut to delete the cell.
3. Select where you want to paste the cells.
• If you want to reuse the same drawing and keep the file size small, you must
select a cell in the same element.
• If you want to create a new drawing, you can select a cell in the same or a
different element.
• In the Timeline window, you must change the current frame (with the red
frame slider) to select the cell in the element where you want to insert the
pasted object.
4. Select Edit > Paste or Edit > Paste New Object.
• Select Paste.
D If you selected a cell in the same element, Toon Boom Studio accesses the
original file. When you modify a file, all cells that access the file are
updated.
D If you selected a cell in a different element, Toon Boom Studio creates a
new file in your animation set folder. You can modify either file without
affecting the other.
• Select Paste New Object if you want to create a new cell in the same element
with the contents of the original cell.
See Also
Creating Cycles
Animation cycles are a key technique in the reuse of work and file size management.
The Create Cycles command simplifies the process of labelling cells in the exposure
sheet to create cycles.
You can create animation cycles in the Exposure Sheet window or in the Timeline
window.
358
To create cycles from a section of cells:
1. Select the cells that contain the drawings in the cycle.
• In the Exposure Sheet window, press [Shift] and select the range of cells.
• In the Timeline window, press [Alt] (Windows) or [Option] (MacOS) and
select the range of cells.
Select the cells that you want to use in the cycle.
2. Select Element > Cell > Create Cycle. The Create Cycle dialog box opens.
3. In Number of Cycles field, type the number of cycles you want to create,
including the cycle you have selected.
The cycle is added after the selected cells.
See Also
Creating Advanced Cycles on page 360
359
Creating Advanced Cycles

During animation development, you design more complicated cycles.
For example, a bouncing ball cycle where the sequence of drawings goes backwards
and forwards during the cycle (1-2-3-4-3-2-1).
You can use the Advanced Cycle dialog box to automate the process of creating cycles
and labelling cells.
To create advanced cycles:

1. Select the element where you want to create the cycle.
2. Select Element > Cell > Create Advanced Cycle. The Advanced Cycle dialog box
opens.
3. In the First Drawing and Last Drawing panels, select the drawings that you want
in the first and last position of the cycle. You can type values in the Name fields or
use the slider to select the drawings.
4. In the Exposure panel, set the exposure time for the drawings in the cycle. You
can set a different exposure for the last drawing in the cycle to stay on-screen.
360
5. In the Loops panel, select the number of times you want the cycle to repeat.
• Select None if you don’t want the cycle to repeat.
• Select Continuous if you want the cycle to restart with the first drawing on
each loop.
For example, if you created 2 continuous loop of drawings 1-2-3, the resulting
loop would be: 1-2-3-1-2-3.
• Select Forward-Backward, if you want to restart the loop with the previous
drawing.
For example, if you created 2 forward-backward loops with drawings 1-2-3,
the resulting loop would be: 1-2-3-2-1-2-3-2.
• Type the number of times you want the cycle repeat in the Loops field. If you
want to repeat the cycle for a specific number of frames, type a value in the
Frames field.
6. Select how you want to insert the cycle.
• Select Insert Frames to add the cycle in the current location.
• Select Overwrite Frames to delete frames that overlap the cycle.
7. Click OK when you are done. Toon Boom Studio updates the Exposure Sheet
window with the new cell labels.
See Also
361
Protecting Drawings
You can lock drawings so that they can’t be modified accidentally.
If you lock selected drawings in an element, you can auto paint all the other drawings
without modifying the locked ones.
You can only lock drawings from the Exposure Sheet window.
To protect drawings:
1. Select the drawing(s) you want to lock.
2. Control-click the selected drawing(s) and select Lock Drawing from the pop-up
menu.
A lock appears on the selected drawings wherever in use.
3. To unlock the drawing, right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) it and
select Unlock Drawing from the pop-up menu.
See Also
Clearing a Drawing from a Cell

You can clear drawings that you don’t want to use anymore from a cell. This action
keeps the drawing file, but deletes all of the contents of the drawing.
You must use the Exposure Sheet window to clear drawings from a cell.
To clear drawings from selected cells:

1. Select the cell(s) that contain drawings you want to erase.
If you are selecting more than one cell, you should check each cell to make sure it
contains a drawing you don’t want anymore. If you select a range of cells, only
the first cell appears in the Drawing View window.
2. Right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) the selected cell(s) and select
Clear Drawing from the pop-up menu. Toon Boom Studio deletes the contents of
the drawing and leaves the cell with the same name.
See Also
Deleting Cells from Elements on page 363
362
Deleting Cells from Elements

You can delete cells when you want to remove it from the playback.
• When you delete cells from drawing and image elements, the original files
remain in your animation set folder.
• When you delete cells from sound or media elements, the deleted frames are
not played in the rendered animation, though the original file is unchanged.
For complete control over your sounds, you should edit them with the Sound
Element Editor.
To delete cells from selected element(s):

1. Select the cells from the element(s) you want to affect.
2. Right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) your selection and select
Delete Cell from the pop-up menu.
See Also
Editing Templates on page 372
The Library Window on page 366
363
364
Chapter 11
Re-using Content
This chapter explains how to re-use content and make the most of your work.
• The Library Window on page 366
• Re-using Drawings and Images from the Current Animation on
page 369
• Creating Templates on page 370
• Using Templates on page 377
• Creating, Renaming and Deleting Catalogs on page 384
• Creating and Renaming Libraries on page 386
The Library Window

The Library window is your center for managing re-usable content in Toon Boom
Studio. From the Library window, you can access:
• All vector elements and drawings, and image elements and bitmaps in your
animation.
From the list of vector elements, you can copy any drawing from one place in
your animation set to another.
• Templates stored in the Global or Local libraries, or in another library on your
file system.
Templates are files that you can use to store individual pieces of animation
content, such as drawings, images, or sounds, or collections of animation
content (many drawings, images or sounds) or elements.
The Animation folder lists all of the

vector elements in your animation,
organized by scene.
Templates are libraries, like the

Local and Global folders.
You can create or load libraries of
templates stored on your
computer or on any computer on
your network.
When you need to re-use any piece of animation content in your current animation, or
in any project you are working on, you can use templates.
You can even use templates to share work with other artists on a project. Create
templates from completed work and then send the template files to the rest of the
people on your team. Those responsible for compositing can import the templates into
the Library and then build the finished work.
Templates can reduce the amount of work you need to do, as well as keep the file size
of your animation small.
When you are animating cut-out characters, you may decide to create libraries of
templates of your character. You may decide to create templates of individual body
parts, the entire character in various poses, or animated sequences like walk-cycles.
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Chapter 11: Re-using Content
You can create templates from:
• Drawings, images and sound
• Entire elements: Templates you create from the Timeline store the layout
order and peg effects you design.
You can also import media files (sound files and SWF movies) into the Library so that
you can manage them as re-usable templates.
You can create templates from single or multiple elements
by dragging them from the Exposure Sheet.
You can create templates from single

or multiple elements by dragging them
from the Timeline.
You can create a template from the
entire scene if you want.
You cannot create templates from Media elements or their contents.
See Also
Creating and Renaming Libraries on page 386
Previewing Content in the Library on page 368
Importing Multimedia Files into the Library on page 373
Copying a Template into Your Animation on page 378
Re-using Drawings and Images from the Current Animation on page 369
367
Previewing Content in the Library

You can check the contents in the Library using the preview area in the window.
Select the checkbox to

enable preview in the
Library window.
To preview content in the library:

1. Select Window > Library to display the Library window.
2. Make sure the preview checkbox is enabled.
3. Double-click the object you want to preview.
• In the Animation folder, you can preview entire scenes or elements, or
individual drawings.
• In the library folders, like the Local and Global folders, you can preview any
type of template. However, if your template consists of a peg or a camera
element only, you may not see anything in the preview window.
4. Click the Play button in the preview panel. If there are multiple frames in the
object you want to play back, you can use the slider to select the frame you want
to see.
See Also
Re-using Drawings and Images from the Current Animation on page 369
Creating Templates on page 370
368
Re-using Drawings and Images

from the Current Animation
You can re-use vector drawings and bitmap images in the current animation by
copying them to new elements, in the same or different scenes.
The Animation folder lists all of the

vector elements and drawings in your
animation, organized by scene.
When you select an element, the

contents appear in the right side of
the Library window.
To re-use drawings and images from the current animation:

2. In the Animation folder, select the scene and element that contains the drawings
you want to copy.
3. Decide what you want to copy.
• To copy all of the drawings in the element to the new location, drag the
element from the Library window to the Exposure Sheet or Timeline.
• To copy only those drawings you need, drag selected drawings from the right
column of the Library window to a new or existing element. You can also
select the frame where you want to copy the selected content, right-click
(Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) the drawing or image, and select Copy
to Current Frame from the pop-up menu.
Toon Boom Studio copies the drawings you select to the new location. The drawing
you copy will have a new name. You can edit the vector drawings you copy in their
new location. You can also use the Cells tab to swap drawings assigned to appear at a
frame with another one in the element folder.
See Also
369
Creating Templates
Creating a template is as easy as selecting what you want from the Exposure Sheet or
Timeline window and dragging your selection into the Library window.
You can create templates from any piece of animation content:
• Create templates from single or multiple images and drawings, or sounds, in
the Exposure Sheet window.
• Create templates from single or multiple elements, or from a selection of
frames across multiple elements, from the Timeline window.
Select sequences of drawings and
images from the Exposure Sheet.
Select sequences of
elements from the
Timeline window.
When you drag your selection in the Library window, Toon Boom Studio analyzes the
content and assigns an icon to the template based on what it contains.
To create templates:
2. In the Library window, select the library where you want to create your template.
3. Select the item(s) you want to use to create a template from either the Exposure
Sheet or the Timeline window.
370
Depending on the view window you are in, you can select the same items one of
the following ways:
• You can select a range of cells from any part of the Exposure Sheet (you
cannot select one or more columns).
To select a range of cells, click the first cell and drag to select the adjoining
cells (either from the same column or the adjacent columns). You can also
press [Shift]-click to select a range of cells.
• You can select a range of adjacent items (cells or elements, pegs, cameras)
from the Timeline window, as well.
D To select a single element, click the element title in the Timeline window.
D To select a range of elements, click the first element title and [Shift]-click a
range of elements in the Timeline window.
D To select a range of cells, click and drag through the cells you want to
select.
If you have de-selected the Single Cell Selection option in the
Sceneplanning tab of the Preferences dialog box, you must press [Alt]
(Windows) or [Option] (MacOS) and drag the pointer through the cells
you want to select.
4. Drag the selected items to a library in the Library window. Toon Boom Studio
assigns an icon to represent the contents of the template and assigns a temporary
name.
5. Type the name of the new template, replacing the default name, and press [Enter]
(Windows) or [Return] (MacOS). To better organize your project or global
templates, you can create Catalogs (which are similar to folders).
See Also
Renaming Templates on page 374
Deleting Templates on page 374
Viewing a Template’s Properties on page 375
Creating, Renaming and Deleting Catalogs on page 384.
371
Editing Templates
You can modify the content of global or local templates. Toon Boom Studio updates all
animation sets that link to templates you edit.
To edit templates:
1. In the Library window, right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) the
template you want to edit and select Edit Template from the pop-up menu.
The identification of the active scene changes in the Scene Manager and the
contents of the template you are editing appear in the View windows and the title
bar on the Exposure Sheet and Timeline windows changes to indicate that you are
editing a template.
When you edit a template, the

arrows next to the scene in the
Scene Manager disappear to
indicate that you are editing a
template.
2. Now that you are in template editing mode, you can change the contents of the
template in the View windows, Exposure Sheet window or Timeline window.
3. Save your template.
• Select File > Save to save the changes to the local and global template, as well
as the animation set.
• Select File > Save Global Library to save the contents of the global library
only and not the animation set.
4. To exit the edit template mode, right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS)
the template and select Return to Scene. You can also double-click the scene
name in the Scene Manager.
See Also
372
Importing Multimedia Files into the Library

If you have a SWF file, a sound file, an image, or even another template that is not
currently in your animation set, you can import it into the Library window so that you
can manage and re-use it.
To create templates from multimedia files:

1. Right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) in the right panel of the Library
window and open the Import menu.
2. Select what you want to import from the following choices:
• Image File: import any bitmap image supported by your version of
QuickTime.
• Movie File: import an SWF file.
• Sound File: import any sound file supported by your version of QuickTime.
• Template File: import a template created by Toon Boom Studio.
3. Browse to the folder that contains the file you want to import, select the file, and
click OK.
We imported an SWF,
a sound, and template
file into the Library.
See Also
373
Renaming Templates
When you create a template, Toon Boom Studio assigns a default name to it. You can
rename the template at any time. Renaming a template does not affect the items it
contains.
To rename a template:
1. Right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) the template you want to
rename and select Rename Template from the pop-up menu.
2. Type the new template name and press [Enter] (Windows) or [Return] (MacOS)
or click outside the template icon.
See Also
Deleting Templates
When you don’t need a template anymore, you can simply delete it from your library.
Deleting a template does not affect the contents of the Timeline or Exposure Sheet
window, unless you linked the template to a scene.
To delete a template:
• Right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) the template you want to
delete and select Delete Template from the pop-up menu.
See Also
374
Viewing a Template’s Properties

When you create a template, Toon Boom Studio uses an icon to help you remember
what it contains. If you need more information about the template, you can view the
template’s properties. You can see the following information:
• the type and version of the template
• who created the template, when it was created, and any copyright
information. You can configure the artist’s name and copyright information
using the General tab in the Preferences dialog box.
• the size of the template
• the contents of the template
To view a template’s properties:

• Right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) the template and select
Template Properties from the pop-up menu. The Properties dialog box
opens.
In addition to the properties of

the template, you can see the
type of elements that are in the
template as well as their
duration.
See Also
375
Defining the Author and Copyright of a

Template
When you create a template, Toon Boom Studio automatically assigns a default name
and copyright owner.
You can view a template’s author name and copyright notice in the template’s
Properties dialog box.
To define the template author and copyright owner:

1. Open the Preferences dialog box. The Preferences dialog box opens.
2. Select the General tab.
You can change

information about
templates you
create in the
General tab.
3. Type the name of the person who will be creating the templates from now on in
the User Name field.
4. Type any copyright information in the Copyright field.
5. Click OK when done. Any template you create from now on will use the author
and copyright information you just entered in the General tab.
See Also
Viewing a Template’s Properties on page 375
376
Using Templates
After you create templates, you can build the content of your animation with work you
have already done.
For example, you can use a walk-cycle template to speed up the process of animating
a sequence for a cut-out character.
You can either copy or link templates into your animation.
• When you copy templates into your animation, Toon Boom Studio adds the
contents of the template into your animation set folders, increasing the file
size of your animation, and expands the template contents so that you can
edit them.
Copying templates is a great way of building your content from basic
material that you can modify.
We copied this walk
cycle into multiple
scenes so that we
could change essential
qualities of the
template material. In
this case, we changed
the color of the
character’s clothes
for the different
scenes.
• When you link templates, Toon Boom Studio makes a Media element, which
references the template file. You cannot edit the contents of a media element.
However, if you edit the template, all sources that link to that template are
updated too.
Linking templates is particularly useful for frequently used content, like
credits or logos, which must remain the same for all productions. It also keeps
the file size of your animation small by referring to re-usable items rather
than duplicating them.
377
Each of these animations is

going to use the same final
credits, so we linked the final
credits (stored in an SWF
file) to each of these
animation projects.
See Also
Copying a Template into Your Animation on page 378
Copying a Template into Your Animation

You can drag a template from the Library to the Exposure Sheet or Timeline window
to add its contents to your animation.
Toon Boom Studio displays the contents in the View windows, where you can edit
them, and adds the contents to your animation folder.
378
Copying templates into your animation will increase the file size of your movies. You
can link templates to your animation to keep the file size of your animation small.
To copy a template into your animation:

1. Select the template you want to use from the Library window.
2. Drag the template to the Timeline or Exposure Sheet window. The mouse
pointer displays a plus (+) sign when it is in a position where you can add it.
• If your template contains only one type of content (say bitmaps), you can add
it to an existing bitmap element.
• If your template contains multiple elements, you will not be able to add it to
an existing element if that element is not compatible with the template. You
must drag templates that contain multiple elements just outside an element
column or row to add it to the animation.
When you copy templates that have multiple elements to the Exposure Sheet,
you will not see those elements that can’t be displayed in the Drawing View,
like pegs and cameras. However, you will be able to see them when you
switch to the Sceneplanning view windows.
See Also
Copying Selected Template Contents into

Your Animation
When you drag templates from the Library window, you can open the Timeline Drag
& Drop Preferences to select the template contents that you want to copy into your
animation.
To copy selected template contents into your animation:

1. In the Library, select the template you want to copy.
2. Drag the template to the Timeline window and place the template on top of the
elements where you want to place it.
You must select the same number and hierarchy of elements as are in the
template. Otherwise you won’t be able to complete the drag operation. You can
check the contents of a template. Right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click
(MacOS) the template and select Properties.
379
3. Press [Alt] (Windows) or [Control]+[Alt] (MacOS) and then release the mouse
button. The Timeline Drag & Drop Preferences dialog box opens.
4. Select the properties you want to copy to the animation and click OK.
See Also
Linking Templates to Media Elements

You must use media elements to link templates to your animations. Media elements
identify the contents they contain as references to a centrally stored file. If the template
you link contains multiple elements, all of those elements are composited into one
element, the media element.
Linking templates has two advantages:
• It helps you keep the file size of your Adobe Flash animations small. For more
information on reducing the file size of your final animation, see Optimizing
your Animation for the Web.
• It helps you update and manage frequently used material in a central
location.
If the contents of the template are updated, Toon Boom Studio will update all
animations that use the template.
380
To link a template to a media element:

1. Select Element > Add > Media. A new element appears in the Exposure Sheet
and Timeline window.
2. In the Library window, select the template you want to link and drag it to the
media element you created.
You can also create a media element as you link a template, by pressing [Alt]
(Windows) or [Option]+[Command] (MacOS) as you drag the template to the
Exposure Sheet or Timeline window.
Toon Boom Studio links to the original file and displays the contents of the file in
the View windows.
See Also
Cutting, Copying and Pasting Linked Media Content on page 381
Cutting, Copying and Pasting Linked Media Content

When you have a media element that contains some linked content, it occupies a range
of cells in the element. You can modify this content by cutting, copying, and pasting
the occupied cells.
This does not affect the original content, but does allow you to change the timing of the
animation in the media element. You can also change the timing of the contents of a
media element by changing its exposure or creating cycles.
381
To move the contents of the cells in the media element:
1. Select the cell or range of cells you want to move or copy.
2. Right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) the selection and select either
Cut or Copy.
• Cut: the system removes the contents of the selected cells, moving the
following cells to fill their place.
• Copy: the system makes a copy of the selected cell(s), leaving the original
cell(s) unchanged.
3. Right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) a cell in a media element and
select Paste. The cut/copied cells appear in their new cells.
See Also
Using Paste Special to Update Content

from a Template
You can use the Paste Special command to update selected content with material
stored in a template file. You can use this command to update drawings, timing,
layout, as well as palettes.
To use paste special to update content:

1. Select the template in the Library and select Edit > Copy Template.
2. In the Timeline, select the elements you want to paste the template onto.
You must select the same number and hierarchy of elements as are in the
template. Otherwise you won’t be able to complete the paste operation. You can
check the contents of a template. Right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click
(MacOS) the template and select Properties.
3. Select Edit > Paste Special. The Paste Special dialog box opens.
4. Select the options from the Paste Special dialog box.
382
5. Click OK.
See Also
383
Creating, Renaming and Deleting

Catalogs
As your projects evolve and grow, you may need to sort and group related templates.
You can create template Catalogs within any library folder. This catalog acts like a file
folder and allows you to group related templates.
For example, if you had a collection of templates for the different characters in your
project, you could create a catalog for each character, with sub catalogs for specific
aspects of the character’s design.
In this example,
Goth Girl’s
catalog contains
other catalogs,
one for dude’s
lip sync images
and the other for
his walk cycle.
To organize your templates in catalogs:

1. Select a library folder in the left pane of the Library window.
2. Right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) in the template section of the
Library window and select New Catalog from the pop-up menu. An empty
catalog appears in the window with a default name.
3. Type a new name for the catalog or accept the default name. You can change the
catalog name at any time.
4. To move or copy an existing template to a catalog, select the template and drag it
to the catalog you want.
• If you simply drag the template file, Toon Boom Studio moves the selected
template.
• If you press [Ctrl] (Windows) or [Option] (MacOS) while you drag the
template file, Toon Boom Studio places a copy of the template in the selected
catalog.
384
5. To create a template in a catalog, select the catalog from the left pane of the
Library window and then drag the contents from the Exposure Sheet or
Timeline window to the catalog.
6. To rename a catalog, right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) the catalog
you want to rename and select Rename Catalog from the pop-up menu.
7. To delete a catalog, right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) the catalog
you want to delete and select Delete from the pop-up menu.
See Also
Creating, Renaming and Deleting Catalogs on page 384
385
Creating and Renaming Libraries

By default, there is a Global and Local library for you store your templates in.
• Local: templates are available to all scenes in the current animation. You can
find these template files in the Template folder of your animation set.
• Global: these templates are available to all animation sets you create on your
computer.
The templates you have in your

current animation set appear in
the Local folder.
The templates that you can

use in any animation set
appear in the Global folder.
New libraries can be stored anywhere on your computer, or on any computer in your
network. Libraries can help you share templates with other users.
For example, if you have a library containing all of the templates in a character, all
users can load the library in Toon Boom Studio to have access to those templates.
In this example, we have a

Library for our Goth Girl
character.
In the Library, we have
catalogs to organize all of the
templates we have created
for the Goth Girl.
Toon Boom Studio identifies libraries with the extension TBC.
To create and rename libraries:

1. Right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) in the left pane of the Library
window and select Create Library from the pop-up menu. A dialog box opens
386
that you can use to select an existing folder to use as a library or to create a new
folder to use as a library.
2. Click Close (Windows) or Choose (MacOS) when you have selected a folder to
use as a library.
The new library appears in the left pane of the Library window.
3. To rename the library, click its name so that it becomes editable and change the
name in the field. This will not change the name of the folder on your file system.
4. Select File > Save Global Library to save the new library.
See Also
Configuring Global Library Storage on page 388
Loading and Closing Libraries on page 387
Loading and Closing Libraries

You can load libraries of templates that are stored on your computer or on another
computer available through your network.
Libraries make it easier for you to work on productions with other users that will share
the same templates. Toon Boom Studio identifies libraries with the extension TBC. To
load a library, the folder must have a file with the TBC extension inside of it.
To load and close libraries:

1. Right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) in the left pane of the Library
window and select Open Library from the pop-up menu. A dialog box opens that
you can use to locate a library.
2. Click Open when you have located the library you want to open.
The library appears in the left pane of the Library window.
3. To close a library, right-click (Windows) or [Control]-click (MacOS) the library
and select Close Library.
4. If you have made changes to the library since you last saved the global library, a
message appears asking you to confirm your desire to close the library.
• Click Yes to close the library without saving changes.
• Click No to keep the library open so that you can save changes.
5. Select File > Save Global Library to save changes to the library.
387
See Also
Configuring Global Library Storage on page 388
Creating and Renaming Libraries on page 386
Configuring Global Library Storage

Toon Boom Studio stores the global templates in a directory that all animation sets can
access. By default, Toon Boom Studio stores the global templates in your Documents
folder, but you can select another folder for these global templates.
To change the default path for global templates:

2. Select the General tab.
The Global
Library field
identifies the
location of your
Global template
folder.
3. Click the browse button next to the Global Library field and select the path where
you want to store your template files.
See Also
388
Chapter 12
Playback and Rendering
This chapter explains how to generate a preview of your scene or of all the
scenes in your animation set. It also explains how to export your movies to
formats like SWF and QuickTime.
• Previewing a Scene Interactively on page 390
• Real-Time Playback on page 392
• Exporting Your Movie on page 394
• Exporting Drawings to PDF on page 396
Previewing a Scene Interactively

At any point in the development of your animation, you can see a preview of the
current scene using Interactive Playback. During Interactive Playback, you can change
the content that is playing back. For example, you can add drawings and elements to
the playback selection.
In Interactive Playback, the animation appears in the View windows. Interactive
Playback will not play your animation in real-time. As a result, if you enable sound
playback, the sound may not play in sync with your animation.
Loop playback
Rewind to first
frame Fast-forward to last
frame
Play or Stop
To play back your animation using Interactive Playback:

1. Select the drawings/elements you want to play back.
• Use the Show/Hide buttons in the Exposure Sheet window and Timeline
window to display the elements you want to preview.
• In the Exposure Sheet window, drag your mouse pointer through the cells
you want to preview.
• In the Timeline window, change the playback range to select the frames you
want to preview.
If you select nothing, the entire contents of the scene plays back.
2. If you want to play sound, select Play > Turn Sound Playback On. Because the
scene may not play back in real-time, the sound may not be synced to your
animation.
3. Press the Play toolbar button.
All of the selected content plays in sequential order in the View windows until the
frame marker reaches the last frame of the scene or until you click the Stop
button.
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Chapter 12: Playback and Rendering
4. If you want the playback to repeat, click the Loop toolbar button before you
click the Play button.
See Also
Setting the Playback Range in the Timeline on page 391
Setting the Playback Range in the Timeline

By default, when you want to preview the animation in your scene from
Sceneplanning view windows, Toon Boom Studio starts at the current frame in the
scene and plays until the last frame, unless you stop the playback manually:
If you want to preview only a specific segment of your scene, you can customize the
playback range by setting a start and end frame of the playback.
When you play back

the scene, Toon
Boom Studio plays
only the frames that
fall between these
two markers.
To set the playback range in the Timeline:

1. Select Play > Playback Range > Free. When you select this option, two markers
appear in the frame counter to mark the start and end frames.
The Automatic Fit option (selected by default) sets the playback range to the
entire length of the scene. It adjusts the playback range automatically as your
scene expands or shrinks.
2. Drag the start frame marker (on the left) to where you want to start the playback
range.
3. Drag the end frame marker (on the right) to where you want to end the playback
range.
You can select Play > Playback Range > Change Playback Range Start Frame or
Change Playback Range End Frame, type the a frame number, and click OK to
adjust the markers.
4. Click the Play toolbar button to preview the animation in the current playback
range.
391
See Also
Real-Time Playback
You can render your movie or scene to play it back in real-time and see how your
animation will look in its final state. With real-time playback, you can evaluate how the
sound is synced to your animation.scenes:
To play back content:

1. Select one of the following commands from the Play menu.
• Preview Movie: plays all of the scenes in the movie, including the
sceneplanning effects.
• Preview Scene: plays only the current scene including sceneplanning effects.
• Preview Exposure Sheet: plays the scene in the Drawing View. None of the
sceneplanning effects will play back.
• Preview Exposure Sheet Selection: plays the Exposure Sheet selection.
• Quick Preview: plays the scene with the timing and effects from the view you
are in.
The Rendering progress dialog box opens as Toon Boom Studio renders your
animation. You can press the Minimize button on this dialog box to hide the Toon
Boom Studio application while you render.
When the render is complete, the Playback window opens with your animation
and begins to play back your movie from the first frame.
The display settings of the Drawing View window (zoom and pan) determine what
part of your scene is rendered when you play back content from the Exposure Sheet.
392
2. Use the controls in the Playback window to adjust the playback of your movie.
See Also
393
Exporting Your Movie

When your animation is done and ready to share with your audience, you are ready to
export. You have the following export choices:
• Adobe Flash movie
• QuickTime movie
• AVI
• DV Stream
• Image Sequence
To export to your movie:

1. Select File > Export Movie. The Export dialog box opens.
2. From the Export Format menu, select the type of file you want to export. You
have the following choices:
• Flash Movie: Toon Boom Studio exports version 6 SWF movies. You can
choose to export a compressed or uncompressed file.
• QuickTime Movie
• AVI
• DV Stream
• Image Sequence
3. To control the export settings, you have three options in the Settings menu:
• Select Default to use standard settings for the selected export file format.
• Select Most Recent to use the last used settings.
394
• Click the Options button to display a dialog box with the export options for
the Export Format you selected.
4. Select the part of the movie that you want to export from the Export Type panel.
• Full Movie: exports all the scenes in the current animation set. The order the
scenes appear in is displayed in the Scene Manager window.
• Timeline Current Scene: exports the contents of the scene or template
currently open in Toon Boom Studio.
• Exposure Sheet Scene: exports the contents of the scene or template from the
Exposure Sheet. This option does not include any of the effects you created in
the Sceneplanning view windows.
5. In the Export Range panel, select the content you want to export.
• All: exports the entire scene or movie. If you selected Full Movie in the
Export Type panel, All is selected by default and you cannot change it.
• Frames from: enter the selection of frames you want to export.
• Free Playback Range: It exports the playback range you set up in the
Timeline window. If there is no playback range, the option is not available.
• Selection: This option is available when you select to export the Exposure
Sheet scene. It exports the frames you have selected in the Exposure Sheet
window.
6. To view the final files after the compilation is complete, select the Launch Player
After Export checkbox.
Your movie appears automatically in the Playback window when the export has
finished.
7. Click OK to move on to the next step of the export process.
• If you have not selected to modify your export options, a progress bar
appears to show you the progress of the export.
• If you selected to modify your export options, an export settings dialog box
appears.
See Also
Setting the Playback Range in the Timeline on page 391
395
Exporting Drawings to PDF

You can export a drawing to the PDF file format. The exported file can then be opened
in a program that supports PDF files, such as Acrobat Reader, or Adobe Illustrator.
To export a drawing:
1. Select the drawing you want to export.
• In the Exposure Sheet, select a cell with the drawing you want to export.
• Select an element layer in the Timeline. With the Cell tab displayed in the
Properties window, use the slider to display the drawing in the selected
frame.
2. Select File > Export Drawing to PDF. The Save As dialog box opens.
3. Select where you want to store the PDF file and enter its filename.
4. Press Save.
A confirmation dialog box displays the location and name of the file you
exported.
See Also
Importing Illustrator and PDF Files on page 131
396
Index curve grips, 104
drop shadows, 314
frames, 355
gradient color swatches, 144
Numbers keyframes, 305
notes, 323
12 field grid, 112 numbered cells, 347
16 field grid, 112 palettes, 168
3D space pen styles, 108
active view, 203 scenes, 45
add motion points to motion path, 256 sound, 182
changing rotation pivot point, 219 sound note, 197
create FB motion path, 254 templates, 370
create motion path with pegs, 250 adding lip sync notes, 197
create NS or EW motion path, 252 additive
element layering order, 210 color transformations, 300
FB position, 209
add motion points to motion path, 256
mapping NS/EW/FB, 200
NS/EW position, 208 alpha
panning in View windows, 202 blend, 176
recenter view, 204 mix colors, 147
repositioning elements, 207 tint, 174
rotating elements, 216 alpha value
rotating elements over time, 242 color swatch, 146
scale pivot point, 214 animation
scaling elements, 211 exporting, 394
Sceneplanning concepts, 200 frame rate, 42
selecting elements, 204 playback, 390
skewing elements over time, 248 resolution, 42
using pegs, 222 show/hide scenes, 48
using View windows, 200 tweening, 17
workflow, 22 workflow, 17
zooming in View windows, 202 animation cycles
advanced, 360
A creating, 358
animation project
activate/deactivate cell display copying a template into, 378
in Exposure Sheet, 325 creating, 40
active view deleting scenes, 49
switching, 203 folder, 345
adding saving, 40
cameras, 284 structure, 345
control points, 104 .tbdp, 40
using templates, 377
397
animationproject bitmap textures

renaming scenes, 47 editing, 155
animation project folder painting zones with, 153
scene folder, 345 swatches, 141
sound folder, 345 blank cells, 353
template folder, 345 blank frames, 353
using templates, 377 inserting, 355
animation properties blend
camera size, 42 alpha, 176
frame rate, 42 HSB, 176
preset formats, 43 palette styles, 176
resolution, 42 RGB, 176
arrow BMP
pegs in Timeline, 226 converting to vector drawings, 129
author brush lines
template, 376 creating from pencil lines, 71
Auto Light Table, 115 Brush tool, 66
display, 121 control points, 88
element, 121 conversion, 89
hide, 121 curve grips, 102
overview, 121 extraction, 89
automatic lip sync mapping, 196 file size, 88
AVI pen styles, 107
exporting, 394
C
B camera
background color adding to scene, 284
changing in Camera View window, 53 changing field of view, 282
changing in Drawing View, 53 changing over time, 291, 295
changing in scene, 46 default, 284
backgrounds duration, 293
importing, 126 dynamic zoom, 291, 295
scanning, 135 effects, 282
end frame, 293
Bias
field of view, 289
definition, 263
field of view (dynamic), 291
set default, 264
field size, 42
bitmap folder FOV (dynamic), 291
animation project, 345 length, 293
bitmaps overview, 282
swatches, 149 panning, 282, 297
vectorizing, 129 position, 285
398
Index
properties, 42 image display, 325

reposition, 282 lip sync display, 325
secondary, 284 name display, 325
size, 42 naming, 356
start/end frame, 293 numbered, 347
trucking, 282, 297 pasting, 357
type (element), 337 play sound, 184
zoom, 282, 289 renaming, 356
zoom over time, 291, 295 show notes, 325
cameras sound preview, 184
importing images, 135 thumbnail display, 325
camera size timing display, 325
resolution, 42 updating notes, 323
viewing notes, 324
Camera View window, 200
waveform, 190
camera zooms, 289
changing background color, 53 cell display
changing rotation pivot point position, active, 325
219 changing in Exposure Sheet, 325
changing the view, 202 inactive, 325
disable all effects, 305 cells
dynamic zoom, 291 cut/copy/paste media, 381
positioning the camera, 285 cell swapping, 351
recentering the view, 204 centerline
resetting the view, 204 extract from stroke, 89
rotating pegs, 242 file size, 88
rotation motion path, 242 child
scaling pegs, 245, 248 parent peg, 224
selecting elements, 204
child pegs
zoom, 289
timing, 226
cartoon
clear
workflow, 17
cells, 362
catalog drawings, 362
templates, 384 frames, 362
cell clip mask, 309
adding notes, 323
clone
blank, 353
changing properties, 343
clearing, 362
elements, 343
copying, 357
creating animation cycles, 358 Close Gap tool
creating cycles, 360 Tools palette, 163
cutting, 357 color
display options, 325 adding palettes, 168
exposure, 349 adding swatches, 142
399
additive and multiplicative values, 302 zone, 151

additive changes, 300 color channels
alpha value, 146 adding color values, 301
background, 46 multiply color values, 302
Camera View window background, 53 subtract color values, 301
changing over time, 300 color palettes, 167
channel, 301, 302 adding swatches, 142
Close Gap tool, 163 copying, 168
Colors window, 144 creating, 168
copy palettes, 168 inking lines, 166
default element color, 328 naming swatches, 147
deleting palettes, 170 painting zones, 151
deleting palette styles, 173 swatches, 141
Drawing View background, 53
color swatches
Dropper tool, 160
creating palettes, 168
element color, 327
palette styles, 167
element default color, 329
exporting palettes, 179 color transform, 300, 302
gradients, 144 adding key frames, 305
importing palettes, 178 additive, 300
inking lines, 166 applying to vector elements, 304
ink overview, 140 change properties, 303
linear gradient, 145 cloning elements, 343
multiplicative changes, 300 flattening layers, 306
offsetting, 174 multiplicative, 300
opacity, 146 nesting in multiple elements, 304
paint overview, 140 removing key frames, 305
paint shape, 152 column width
Paint tool, 151 adjusting, 327
paint zone, 152 composition
palettes, 167, 168 layers, 210
palette styles, 171 configure
radial gradient, 145 Bias, 264
rename palette styles, 172 Continuity, 264
swatches, 141 Tension, 264
tint palette styles, 174 constant function, 277
track color, 330
constant segments
transparency, 146
cut-out animation, 230
tweening, 303
keyframes, 230
unpaint, 161
tweening, 230
unpaint zones, 151
using swatches, 141 Continuity
using templates, 377 definition, 263
workflow, 20 set default, 264
400
Index
Contour Editor tool animation project, 40

curve grips, 101, 102 animation projects, 36
modifying vector shapes, 100 drop shadows, 314
overview, 100 gradient color swatches, 144
Tools palette, 101, 102 lip sync images, 192
contours palettes, 168
file size, 88 pen styles, 108
Stroke tool, 163 templates, 370
control point creating lip charts
add motion points to motion path, 256 automatically, 192
adjust curve, 263 credits
Bias, 263 templates, 377
Continuity, 263 cropping sound, 187
create FB motion path, 254 curve
create motion path with pegs, 250 adjust between motion points, 263
create NS or EW motion path, 252 changing shape of, 100
deleting, 261
curve grips, 101
lock, 262
adding control points, 104
motion path, 259
Brush tool, 102
remove, 261
Contour Editor, 101, 102
Tension, 263
deleting control points, 105
unlock, 262
Ellipse tool, 101
control points, 88, 89, 101 Paint tool, 102
conversion Pencil tool, 101
from stroke, 89 Rectangle tool, 101
to center line, 89 reshaping, 101
converting custom
bitmap images to vector drawings, 129 color swatches, 168
coordinates element colors, 327
FB position, 209 track colors, 330
NS/EW position, 208 cut-out
repositioning elements, 207 about, 24
X-axis, 200 animating, 226
Y-axis, 200 peg hierarchies, 270
Z-axis, 200 pivot points, 272
copying rigging, 270
cells, 357 templates, 366
drawing objects, 84 cut-out animation, 272
gradients, 158 basics, 25
palettes, 168 constant segments, 230
templates, 377 timing parent and child elements, 226
textures, 158 Cutter tool, 96, 99
creating
401
cutting track color, 330

cells, 357 waveform, 190
Cutter tool, 96 welcome screen, 35
drawing objects, 84, 99 distorting objects, 85
Eraser tool, 96 documentation conventions, 31
Scissor tool, 97
drag & drop
in Timeline, 235
D templates, 379
drawing
default
adding color over time, 301
Bias, 264
Auto Light Table, 115, 121
camera, 284
cell image display, 325
Continuity, 264
cell lip sync display, 325
element colors, 329
cell name display, 325
Tension, 264
cell thumbnail display, 325
default swatch name cell timing display, 325
changing, 147 clearing cells, 362
defining clearing frames, 362
copyright in template, 376 Cutter tool, 96
definition deselect, 79
Bias, 263 display options, 325
Continuity, 263 distort, 85
Tension, 263 elements, 337
delete Eraser tool, 96
control point from peg, 261 exposure time, 349
key frame, 261 grid display, 111
deleting handles, 81
control points in shapes, 105 importing static images, 126
drawing from Static Light Table, 119 lip sync images, 192
elements, 341 locking, 362
palettes, 170 mask layer, 310
palette styles, 173 moving objects, 81
pen styles, 108 multiply color over time, 302
scenes, 49 next drawing, 115
templates, 374 nudge, 81
onion skin, 115
digital cameras
optimizing for the web, 88
importing images, 135
Paint All, 159
display painting, 151
Auto Light Table, 121 Perspective tool, 85
disable all effects, 305 previous drawing, 115
elements, 321 remove color over time, 301, 302
Static Light Table, 118 remove from Static Light Table, 119
toolbars, 53
402
Index
reposition all, 134 Rectangle tool, 66

resizing objects, 81 Scissor tool, 96
retouching, 65 Select tool, 78
rotating drawing space, 113 Drawing View
rotating objects, 81 Auto Light Table, 121
sceneplanning, 65 Brush tool, 66
Scissor tool, 97 content sequence, 345
select, 78 Contour Editor tool, 100
skew, 85 creating clip mask, 309
Static Light Table, 115 creating pen style, 108
Stroke tool, 163 creating templates, 367, 370
type (element), 337 deleting control points, 104, 105
unlocking, 362 deleting elements, 341
workflow, 17, 21 deselecting objects, 78
drawing elements, 337 drawing tools, 64, 80
cloning, 343 Ellipse tool, 66
drawing folder extract center line, 89
animation project, 345 file size, 88
drawing in Sceneplanning, 65 grid display, 111
importing Illustrator, 131
drawing layers
importing SWF files, 133
flattening, 91, 92
importing transparent images, 128
drawing objects layered elements, 115
cutting parts from, 97 layering elements, 335
erasing sections from, 98 Line tool, 66
drawings masking effects, 308
renaming, 357 modifying pen styles, 109
reusing, 369 moving objects, 81
drawing space onion skin, 115
grid, 111 panning, 123
onion skin, 115 PDF import, 131
rotating, 113 Pencil tool, 66
setup, 110 pen style properties, 86
zooming, 122 pen styles, 107
drawing tools Perspective tool, 85
Brush tool, 66 Polyline tool, 66
Cutter tool, 99 protecting drawings, 362
deselect, 79 real-time playback, 392
Ellipse tool, 66 Rectangle tool, 66
Eraser tool, 98 removing elements, 341
grid display, 111 removing points, 94
Line tool, 66 renaming elements, 341
Pencil tool, 66 reshaping line art, 101
Polyline tool, 66 resizing objects, 81
403
rotating drawing space, 113 cameras, 282

rotating objects, 81 changing color over time, 301
selecting objects, 78 color transform elements, 300
show/hide elements, 319 combining multiple color transforms,
Static Light Table, 118 307
zooming, 122 creating masks, 309
Drawing View window disabling masks, 310
Auto Light Table, 115 drop shadow, 313
background color, 53 hide mask layers, 310
deselect objects, 79 looping pegs, 240
grid, 111 masks, 308, 311
onion skin, 115 multiplicative color transforms, 300, 302
panning, 123 peg hierarchies, 225
recenter, 123 show mask layers, 310
reposition all drawings, 134 elements
rotate drawing space, 113 add motion points to motion path, 256
selecting objects, 78 animation project folder, 345
Static Light Table, 115, 119 attaching to pegs, 223
Dropper tool, 160 changing color, 303
drop shadow, 313 changing over time with pegs, 222
changing peg start time, 239
duplicating
changing with pegs, 223
elements, 342
cloning, 343
duration composition, 210
camera, 293 create FB motion path, 254
changing peg, 239 create NS or EW motion path, 252
exposure, 349 creating motion path with pegs, 250
looping pegs, 240 default colors, 329
DV Stream deleting, 341
exporting, 394 display colors (custom), 327
dynamic camera display colors (default), 329
timeline properties, 293 duplicating, 342
dynamic zoom, 291 end time, 353
FB position, 209
hiding selected, 321
E layering order, 210, 335
ease in/out function, 277 linking templates, 380
masks, 310
editing, 185, 372
naming, 337
bitmap fills, 155
notes, 323
preferences, 50
nudge, 209
templates, 372
peg duration, 239
effects peg ghosts, 253
additive color transform, 301 position, 208
404
Index
positioning in 3D space, 207 PDF, 396

proportional scaling, 213 QuickTime, 394
removing, 341 workflow, 24
renaming, 341 exposures, 349
reposition in motion path, 251 copy/paste, 237
rotating, 216, 242 Exposure Sheet window, 318
rotation pivot point, 219 adding elements, 337
scaling, 211, 212, 245, 248 adding frames, 355
scaling in motion paths, 250 adding images, 126
selecting in Timeline window, 205 adjusting column width, 327
selecting in View windows, 204 changing cell display, 325
show/hide, 319, 320 clearing cells, 362
Solo mode, 321 creating animation cycles, 358, 360
sound, 182 creating templates, 370
start time, 353 deleting elements, 341
Static Light Table, 115 exposure time, 349
templates, 366 generating a lip chart, 192
track color, 330 importing sounds, 182
tweening, 17 inserting blank cells, 353
view notes, 324 inserting numbered cells, 347
View windows, 200 Interactive Playback, 390
workflow, 21 layering elements, 335
element types, 335 layer order, 338
Ellipse tool, 66 linking templates, 380
adding control points, 104 playback, 392
curve grips, 101 playback sound, 184
Eraser tool, 96, 98 removing elements, 341
erasing renaming elements, 341
Cutter tool, 96, 97 Static Light Table, 118
drawing objects, 98 waveform, 190
Eraser tool, 96, 98 workflow, 21
Scissor tool, 96 extreme ease in/out function, 277
EW
Motion Point tab, 259 F
exporting
AVI, 394 fade in/out sound, 189
camera size, 42 fading sound
DV Stream, 394 editing, 189
Flash movie, 394 fast in/out velocity function, 277
frame rate, 42 FB
hide elements, 319 Motion Point tab, 259
image sequence, 394 feet and frames, 333
palettes, 179
405
field of view copying and moving, 235

camera, 289 exposure, 349
change over time, 291, 295 numbered, 347
dynamic camera, 291, 295 selecting in Timeline, 237
file size framing
affect of motion path with pegs, 250, camera elements, 284
252, 254 Function Editor, 274
animation cycles, 358 adding keyframes, 275
Brush tool, 88 camera zoom, 295
centerline, 88 field of view zoom, 295
linking templates, 380 mapping peg movement, 274
templates, 378 plotline, 296
fills reshaping plotline, 277
editing bitmaps and gradients, 155 view options, 279
Flash zoom over time, 295
event sounds, 183
exporting, 394
file size
G
cloning elements, 343 gaps
linking templates, 380 auto close, 165
streaming sounds, 183 closing, 163, 165
workflow, 24 generating lip chart editing, 192
flattening ghosts
Color Transform layers, 306 peg, 253
drawing layers, 91, 92, 95 global library
FOV, 291, 295 storage path, 388
frame template catalogs, 384
delete control point, 261 global templates, 366, 386
delete key frame, 261 catalogs, 384
remove control point, 261 storage path, 388
remove key frame, 261 Grabber tool, 202
frame marker Function Editor, 279
Timeline window, 332 gradient fills
frame rate, 42 editing, 155
exposure time, 349 gradients
setting, 42 adding, 144
frames Dropper tool, 160
adding, 355 linear, 145
adding notes, 323 painting zones with, 153
blank, 353 radial, 145
changing peg duration, 239 transition, 146
clearing, 362 graph
406
Index
Function Editor, 274 files to templates, 373

grid, 112 Illustrator, 131
drawings, 111 images, 126
Function Editor, 279 images (transparent), 128
overlay, 112 palettes, 178
underlay, 112 PDF files, 131
grips scanning, 135
modifying drawings, 81 sounds, 182
SWF files, 133
vectorizing bitmaps, 129
H ink
handles mix colors, 143
modifying drawings, 81 inking, 140
hide alpha, 147
Auto Light Table, 121 Colors window, 145
elements, 321, 322 Dropper tool, 160
Static Light Table, 118 gradient swatch, 144
lines, 166
hierarchy
opacity, 147
pegs, 225
Paint tool, 151
pegs for cut-out, 270
swatches, 141
highlighting swatch name, 147
preferences, 58 transparency, 147
HSB workflow, 20
blend Palette Style, 176 inserting
tint Palette Style, 174 blank cells, 353
cell notes, 323
I numbered cells, 347
numbered frames, 347
Illustrator range of cells, 347
CS, 131 Interactive Playback, 390
importing, 131 range, 391
image elements interpolation
cloning, 343 overview, 222
type, 337 tweening, 17
images
renaming, 357
reusing, 369 K
image sequence keyboard shortcuts, 55
exporting, 394 resetting, 56
importing keyframes
backgrounds, 126 adding to a plotline, 275
bitmaps, 126 adding to color transform, 305
407
add motion points to motion path, 256 elements, 337

add to motion path, 256 flatten automatically, 95
adjust curve, 263 images, 335
Bias, 263 media, 335
constant segments, 230 onion skin, 115
Continuity, 263 order, 340
copying and moving, 235 pegs, 335
copy/paste, 237 reducing for web use, 91, 92
create FB motion path, 254 renaming, 341
create motion path with pegs, 250 shadow efffects, 336
create NS or EW motion path, 252 sound, 335
delete, 261 Static Light Table, 115
Function Editor, 275 tweening, 17
lock, 262 library, 366
motion path, 259 adding elements, 370
remove, 261 catalogs, 384
removing from color transform, 305 copying templates, 378
rotation, 242 copyright, 376
scaling, 245, 248 creating templates, 370
Tension, 263 defining template author, 376
tweening, 230 deleting templates, 374
unlock, 262 editing templates, 372
keyframespline importing files, 373
delete key frame, 261 importing media files, 367
linking templates, 377, 380
L media elements, 377
previewing content, 368
lasso renaming templates, 374
cutting, 97 reusing drawings, 369
layer order reusing images, 369
Timeline, 340 reusing templates, 367
storage path, 388
layers
template properties, 375
adding, 337
templates, 386
Auto Light Table, 115
using templates, 377
cameras, 335
clipping effects, 336 linear gradient, 145
cloning, 343 linear velocity function, 277
color transform effects, 336 lines, 88
deleting, 341 adding control points, 104
drawing, 335 curve grips, 101
drop shadow effects, 336 deleting control points, 105
duplicating, 342 deselecting, 79
element, 335 erasing, 98
408
Index
inking, 166
optimizing, 89
M
pen properties, 86 Mac
pen styles, 107 package file, 40
reshaping, 101 mapping
selecting, 78 lip sync drawings, 196
unpainting, 161 markers
workflow, 17 customizing playback range, 191
Line tool, 66 masks, 308
centerline points, 88 creating, 309
linking modifying, 311
cut/copy/paste media, 381 measurements
templates, 377 configure, 57
linking templates media elements, 337
advantages, 380 cloning, 343
lip chart cut/copy/paste cells, 381
editing, 194 linking templates, 377, 380
generating, 192 media files
lip sync notes, 197 importing to library, 367
lip sync mix colors
mapping lip chart, 196 Colors dialog box, 143
recomputing lip chart
motion
recomputing, 198
delete control points, 261
sound scrubbing, 193
delete key frame, 261
thumbnails, 192
Motion Point tab, 259
view sound, 192
offset from path, 259
waveform, 190
remove control points, 261
lip sync notes remove key frame, 261
adding and editing, 197 tweening, 17, 230
local library workflow, 22
template catalogs, 384 motion guide
local templates, 366, 386 overview, 222
catalogs, 384 motion path
lock add motion points, 256
control point, 262 affect on file size, 250, 252, 254
key frame, 262 bias, 263
locking continuity, 263
drawings, 362 create FB, 254
looping create NS or EW, 252
pegs, 240 creating with pegs, 250
sound, 188 defining
default bias values, 264
409
default continuity values, 264

default tension values, 264
N
delete motion points, 261 naming
direction of, 250 elements, 337
locking/unlocking control points, 262 pens, 109
lock position, 256 scenes, 47
motion point curve, 263 swatches, 147
moving motion points, 259 notes
peg ghosts, 253 adding to cells, 323
pegs, 222 adding to elements, 323
reposition pegs in, 251 sound element, 197
tension, 263 Sound Element Editor, 197
walk cycle, 239 view in cell, 324
motion paths view in element, 324
adding pegs, 223 NS
attaching elements to pegs, 223 Motion Point tab, 259
looping a peg, 240 nudge
peg hierarchies, 225 drawings, 81
motion point elements, 209
existing values, 264 motion point, 257
nudge, 257 numbered cells, 347
tab, 258
numbered frames, 347
Motion Point tab
motion path, 259
spline path, 259 O
motion tool offset
create FB motion path, 254 camera position, 285
createNS or EW motion path, 252 colors, 174
creating motion paths with pegs, 250 motion path, 259
MOV onion skin, 115
exporting, 394 Rotary Light Table, 114
workflow, 24 setting display options, 116
movie online help, 31
adding scenes, 45
opacity
changing scene background color, 46
color swatch, 146
multiplane camera, 282 mix colors, 147
adding camera elements, 284
optimizing drawing layers, 91, 95
dynamic zooms, 291
panning, 297 optimizing drawing objects, 88
trucking, 297 overlay, 112
multiplicative Drawing View, 112
color transform, 302 grid, 112
Static Light Table, 120
410
Index
overview deleting, 173

interpolation, 222 offseting colors in, 174
motion guide, 222 rename, 172
tweening, 222 renaming, 172
swatches, 171
P tinting, 174
workflow, 20
paint panning, 297
mix colors, 143 camera, 282
Paint All, 159 Drawing View, 123
painting, 140, 151 in view windows, 202
alpha, 147 parent peg
closing gaps, 165 about, 224
Colors window, 145 parent pegs
Dropper tool, 160 timing, 226
gradient swatch, 144 paste
opacity, 147 cells, 357
Paint All, 159 drawing objects, 84
Paint tool, 151 paste special, 237, 382
swatch name, 147
path
transparency, 147
adjust curve, 263
unpaint, 161
Bias, 263
workflow, 20
Continuity, 263
zones, 151
motion path, 259
painting zones, 151 Tension, 263
with bitmap textures, 153
PDF
with gradients, 153
exporting, 396
Paint tool, 151 importing, 131
palettes, 167 peg
adding, 168 add motion points to motion path, 256
copying, 168 adjust curve, 263
creating, 168 Bias, 263
deleting, 170 change duration, 239
duplicating, 168 change start time, 239
exporting, 179 changing element over time, 222
importing, 178 Continuity, 263
renaming, 170 create FB motion path, 254
swatches, 167 create motion path, 250
updating from templates, 382 create NS or EW motion path, 252
workflow, 20 delete, 261
palette styles, 167, 171 delete control point, 261
blending a color into, 176 delete key frame, 261
creating, 171 ghosts
411
create motion paths, 253 deleting, 109

lock control point, 262 modifying, 109
lock key frame, 262 Pen tab, 107
motion path, 259 properties, 86
peg ghosts, 253 smoothness, 108
remove, 261 pivot point
remove control point, 261 drawing, 81
remove key frame, 261 rotation, 219
reposition in motion path, 251 scale, 214
Tension, 263 Transform tool, 268
tween (overview), 222 pivot points, 272
unlock control point, 262
playback, 392
unlock key frame, 262
camera size, 42
walk cycle, 239
frame rate, 42
pegs interactive preview, 390
adding, 223 range, 391
attaching elements to, 223 real-time, 392
building hierarchies, 225 show/hide elements, 319
camera zoom, 291 sound, 184
cloning, 343 sound scrubbing, 193
display quality, 58
playback range, 191
extending, 239
Function Editor, 274 plot
looping, 240 Function Editor, 274
modifying masks, 311 plotline
panning camera, 297 adding keyframes, 275
parent, 224 reshaping functions, 277
Parent Peg button, 224 preferences
resizing elements, 245, 248 copyright, 376
rotating elements, 242 global library storage path, 388
scaling, 245, 248 global template storage path, 388
scaling elements, 245, 248 library, 388
show/hide, 320 onion skin options, 116
smooth, 224 selections, 58
trucking cameras, 297 templates, 388
tweening, 17 units of measure, 57
type (element), 337 user name, 376
workflow, 22 velocity, 58
zooming, 291 projects
Pencil tool, 66 creating, 36
pen styles, 107 saving, 40
pen styles workflow, 17
creating, 108 protecting drawings, 362
412
Index
Q elements, 211
resolution
QuickTime setting, 42
exporting, 24, 394 retouching drawings, 65
reusing animation
R drawings, 369
images, 369
radial gradient, 145 library, 366
recomputing lip sync, 198 previewing content, 368
Rectangle tool, 66 templates, 366, 377
pen styles, 107 RGB
recycling animation, 366 blend color in palette style, 176
reducing drawing layers, 91, 92 color transform effect, 300
remove creating swatches, 143
control point, 261 tint palette style, 174
key frame, 261 rigging
renaming cut-out characters, 270
elements, 341 Rotary Light Table, 113
palettes, 170 Rotate tool, 243
palette styles, 172 rotating
pens, 109 bitmap texture fills, 155
scenes, 47 drawings, 81
swatches, 147 drawing space, 113
templates, 374 elements, 216, 242
render gradient fills, 155
AVI, 394 pivot point, 219, 220
DV Stream, 394 View windows, 242
Flash, 394 rotation
hiding elements, 319 keyframes, 242
image sequence, 394 pivot point, 219
playback, 392 resetting, 114
QuickTime, 394
rendering options, 58
reposition
S
elements in motion path, 251 saving animation sets, 40
pegs in motion path, 251 scale
Reset View tool, 204 pivot point, 214
reshaping drawing objects, 100 Scale tool, 245, 248
reshaping functions, 277 scaling
resizing elements, 211, 212, 213, 245, 248
columns in Exposure Sheet, 327 in motion paths, 250
drawing objects, 81 keyframes, 245, 248
413
pegs, 245, 248 curve grips, 102

scanning, 135 cutting parts from, 97
scanning and vectorizing, 135 deleting control points, 105
deselecting, 79
scene camera, 282
Eraser tool, 98
Scene Manager erasing sections from, 98
adding scenes, 45 Optimize command, 91
changing background color, 46 painting, 152
deleting scenes, 49 pen properties, 86
ordering scenes, 47 reshaping contours, 101
renaming scenes, 47 select, 78
show/hide scenes, 48
shortcuts, 55
Sceneplanning views, 200
Side View window, 200
color transform effects, 303
panning and zooming, 202
deleting elements, 341
resetting the view, 204
layering elements, 335
selecting elements, 204
masking effects, 308
peg hierarchies, 225 skewing objects, 85
playback, 392 Skew tool, 248
show/hide elements, 320, 321 slow acceleration velocity function, 277
Timeline window, 318 slow deceleration velocity function, 277
tweening, 17 smooth
workflow, 22 pen styles, 108
scenes Solo mode, 321
changing background color, 46
sound
importing sounds, 182
changing lip assignment, 194
playback, 390
cropping, 187
renaming, 47
customizing playback range, 191
Scissor tool, 96, 97 editing, 185, 186
selecting event sounds, 183
colors, 160 fading, 189
deselecting drawing objects, 79 importing, 182
drawings, 78 mapping lip sync drawings, 196
elements, 204 playback, 184
sounds, 187 recomputing lip sync, 198
selections repeating editing, 188
highlighting preferences, 58 scrubbing, 193
Select tool, 78 Sound Element Editor, 185
shadow effect, 313 streaming, 184
streaming event sounds, 183
shapes
synchronization, 183
adding control points, 104
type (element), 337
color zone, 152
view lip sync, 192
Contour Editor tool, 100
414
Index
waveform, 190 deleting control points, 105

workflow, 19 deselecting, 79
Sound Element Editor, 185 pen styles, 107
changing lip assignment, 194 selecting, 78
customize playback range, 191 Stroke tool, 163
fade in/outelements, 189 swatch
generating a lip chart sound, 192 changing color values, 143
looping sounds, 188 swatches, 141
mapping lip sync drawings, 196 adding, 142
select section, 187 adding gradients, 144
sound scrubbing, 193 bitmap swatches, 149
start position, 186 blending palette styles, 176
sound elements blend palette styles, 176
cloning, 343 copying palettes, 168
sound folder creating palettes, 168
animation project, 345 deleting palette styles, 173
sound loops, 188 Dropper tool, 160
spline duplicating palettes, 168
adjust curve, 263 editing bitmap textures, 155
Bias, 263 editing gradients, 155
Continuity, 263 inking lines, 166
delete control point, 261 naming, 147
motion path, 259 Paint tool, 151
remove control point, 261 selecting from a drawing, 160
Tension, 263 textures, 149
tiling bitmap swatches, 149
spline path
tint palette styles, 174
Motion Point, 259
transparency, 146
start time workflow, 20
changing peg, 239
SWF
Static Light Table, 118 exporting, 394
adding drawings, 118 importing, 133
display preferences, 119 workflow, 24
overlay, 120
properties, 119
removing drawings, 119 T
show/hide drawings, 119
.tbdp
underlay, 120
package file, 40
streaming sounds, 183
templates, 366
stretching author, 376
bitmap swatches, 149 catalogs, 384
strokes copying selected contents, 379
adding control points, 104 copying to a scene, 378
415
copyright, 376 changing element start frame, 353

creating, 370 changing peg duration, 239
creating in Exposure Sheet, 367 copying/moving frames, 235
creating in Timeline, 367 creating advanced animation cycles, 360
deleting, 374 creating cycles, 358
global, 386 creating templates, 370
global library storage path, 388 dynamic camera, 292
importing files, 373 extending pegs, 240
linking, 380 feet and frames, 333
local, 386 frame markers, 332
organizing, 384 inserting blank frames, 355
properties, 375 Interactive Playback, 390
renaming, 374 layering elements, 335
updating, 380 linking templates, 380
updating palettes, 382 Parent Peg button, 224
user name, 376 playback, 392
using, 377, 378 playback range, 391
Templates folder rotation keyframe, 242
animation project, 345 scaling keyframes, 245, 248
configure, 376 selecting elements, 205
Tension selecting frames, 237
definition, 263 show/hide elements, 321
set default, 264 Solo mode, 321
spliting, 334
textures
track color, 330
editing, 155
zooming, 331
painting zones with, 153
properties, 149 timing
swatches, 149 adding blank frames in a scene, 355
cut-out animation, 226
threshold filter
exposure, 349
vectorizing bitmaps, 130, 137
feet and frames, 333
thumbnails workflow, 21
Exposure Sheet window, 325
tinting
lip sync images, 192
palette styles, 174
Static Light Table, 119
waveform, 190 tolerance levels
auto gap closing, 165
tiling
bitmap swatches, 149 toolbars
customizing, 52
Timeline window, 318
displaying, 53
adding pegs, 223
Main, 53
changing camera duration, 294
changing camera start/end frame, 293 Top View window, 200
changing element end frame, 353 camera zooms, 289
changing element layer order, 340 panning and zooming, 202
416
Index
recentering the view, 204 drawings, 362

resetting the view, 204 unpainting, 161
selecting elements, 204 updating
track color, 330 notes, 323
Transform tool templates, 380
pivot point, 268
transition markers, 146
transparency
V
importing bitmaps, 128 vector drawings
mixing colors, 147 converting bitmaps, 129
swatches, 146 drawing, 63
trimming vector elements, 335
sounds, 187 vectorizing
trucking, 297 bitmaps, 129
cameras, 282 scanned drawings, 135
tutorials velocity
opening from welcome screen, 38 functions, 277
TWAIN linear velocity preference, 58
scanning, 135 video card
tweening, 17 configuring, 58
animation, 17
color, 303
interpolation, 17
W
keyframes, 230 walk cycle
limitations, 17 looping pegs, 240
overview, 222 pegs, 239
pegs, 17 waveform
Sceneplanning, 17 sound display, 190
web
U file size, 88, 89
flattening drawing layers, 91, 92
underlay, 112 optimizing drawing objects, 88
Drawing View, 112 reducing points in a line, 89
grid, 112 removing points in a drawing, 94
Static Light Table, 120 welcome screen, 34
units reactivating, 35
preferences, 58 workflow, 17
units of measure, 57
unlock
control point, 262
Z
key frame, 262 zone
unlocking closing gaps automatically, 165
417
closing gaps manually, 163

painting, 151
zooming
camera, 282, 289
dynamic camera, 291, 295
Function Editor, 279
Timeline window, 331
velocity, 296
View windows, 202
Zoom tool, 122
View windows, 200
zoom in/out, 122
418

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V3.

Toon Boom Studio

User Interface: Drawing and Importing

Color Palette tab

User Interface: Sceneplanning and

Animating Using Pegs

Each element layer contains a set of drawings that

Plot the start and end frames of

Add a control point to the motion path

The element follows

Step-by-Step: Creating in Toon Boom

Creating and Gathering the Content

Use the Drawing

Use the Timeline to

Adding the Sound Track

The lip positions of this character

The sound editor gives

Inking and Painting Your Drawings

Fill your drawings with color

Changing the Sequence and Timing of Drawings and

Sceneplanning and Animating Elements

Three different perspectives for

When animating, you can:

• Create camera effects, such as pans, trucks and zooms.

The element follows

In the Adobe Flash, QuickTime,

Animating Cut-Out Style

Like a puppet, this character is made up of many parts.

Instead of drawing a whole new drawing when the

Drawing Cut-out Characters

Grouping Cut-out Components

Sceneplanning Tools and Cut-out Characters

Position the pivot point over the center of a

In the Timeline, select the frame where you want to

Reusing Cut-out Assets

New and Improved Features in V3.5

About the Documentation

Press [A] Press the A button displayed on your keyboard. Square

Click Click the left mouse button.

Right-click Click the right mouse button.

Double-click Click the specified mouse button twice rapidly without

Launching Toon Boom Studio

To launch Toon Boom Studio:

• Double-click the Toon Boom Studio icon.

To reactivate the welcome screen:

Starting Your Animation Project

Creating A New Project

To create a new animation project:

Other ways to open the New Project dialog box:

Opening An Existing Project

To open an existing animation project:

Other ways to open the Open dialog box:

• In the File Toolbar, click the Open button.

Opening a recently used project

To open a recently used animation project:

Accessing Web Resources

TBS Technical Support Web Page

TBS Product Web Page

eLearning Web Page

TBS User Forum

Saving Animation Projects

To save your changes to the project:

To save the animation project with another name or in another location: