TIM'S NOTES ON HARMONY UNITY JS EXPORT

This is an unofficial development page for using Harmony to make character rig and animations and for game projects using Toon Boom Harmony 21.

It is a personal project not related directly with the company or it's development notes so do not message Toon Boom for any questions off my my development notes work as it is my personal project research posted for educational purposes only. This page will be managed by myself and no comments allowed.

Use one cutter node per object drawing object, cannot combine them (I am trying that too it looks to be the situation)
Seems like one Kinematic output per deformer (testing) ok works, streamline the nodes through out, and don’t double up KI outputs
Cannot use art layers, it has some bugs with them, I had to use cutters to make similar effect, I can still use line and color layers as well patches to get same effect
Cannot use one drawing for 3 cutters, it did not calculate correctly, I break them apart and testing 3 drawings on top of each other for clothing
Check game bone names, make sure they do not duplicate in your rig (game_1, game_2) sometimes they do and cause export problems
Game bones and drawings can make smooth exports but need to add more points into the joints of where they bend to make that soft curves (will show later a pic）
Use one Deformer Per One Drawing (I ran into a JS error exporting trying to share a Deformer to 4 drawings at same time)
Try to stay away from way points, I do not know if they export to Unity (in the export engine)
Using Game Deformers carefully they will work, if not then need a swap symbol to help get the right shape, you can swap symbol game deformers though
Simple structure works better for game animation, stay away from groups to see things clearly
Square shape export (1024 x 1024) set this for scene ortho. This does not effect render size, it just make the scene ready to be export
I notice that (rig assist tabs) can be hidden, but I remove them for clean game export
Deformers do not work with this export, need to use game bones for the deformer of choice for the xml export
A good test will be using one cutter to one drawing then image swap to the next target key frame
A simple rig will be ok to rig basic style, just remember to use drawing swaps more, will try a controller rig next
I do not know if transparency node works, they said yes, but I have not tested it myself, I clear out the node view to make it basic structure
Static transform limits I do not know if they work or not; seems like they work just like normal but be careful not to use duplicate drawings
Animate with pegs as best as possible, remember it is an export engine, it needs to grab data directly from the pegs
You cannot share one deformer to two drawings, each drawing must have it’s own deformer
I tried ‘Transform Switch’ that did not work correctly, showed both export legs instead of hiding one, I will do it manually (Switch drawings for IK , FK)
For game engine, use simple names for the programmer to program in, less nodes the better for programming in the exported the code
Setting Peg pivots is extremely important and takes real planning for game engine, pegs turn into BONE POINTS o----o----o
Pupils, iris and brows, separate the cutters , one for each, even for top and bottom, need to separate and use image swaps to prepare for the emotion
For extra wrinkles, brow lines , use image swaps or game bones on a line (I can show that later) it will work even for bendy lines, so just have to practice
To help programmers; please name pegs names to “BONE_X” “deformers name to “DEF_X”
I am using the Harmony SDK to trouble shoot a lot and find mistakes in my rig with it

TIM'S NOTES ON HARMONY UNITY JS EXPORT

Use one cutter node per object drawing object, cannot combine them (I am trying that too it looks to be the situation)

Seems like one Kinematic output per deformer (testing) ok works, streamline the nodes through out, and don’t double up KI outputs

Cannot use art layers, it has some bugs with them, I had to use cutters to make similar effect, I can still use line and color layers as well patches to get same effect

Cannot use one drawing for 3 cutters, it did not calculate correctly, I break them apart and testing 3 drawings on top of each other for clothing

Check game bone names, make sure they do not duplicate in your rig (game_1, game_2) sometimes they do and cause export problems

Game bones and drawings can make smooth exports but need to add more points into the joints of where they bend to make that soft curves (will show later a pic）

Use one Deformer Per One Drawing (I ran into a JS error exporting trying to share a Deformer to 4 drawings at same time)

Try to stay away from way points, I do not know if they export to Unity (in the export engine)

Using Game Deformers carefully they will work, if not then need a swap symbol to help get the right shape, you can swap symbol game deformers though

Simple structure works better for game animation, stay away from groups to see things clearly

Square shape export (1024 x 1024) set this for scene ortho. This does not effect render size, it just make the scene ready to be export

I notice that (rig assist tabs) can be hidden, but I remove them for clean game export

Deformers do not work with this export, need to use game bones for the deformer of choice for the xml export

A good test will be using one cutter to one drawing then image swap to the next target key frame

A simple rig will be ok to rig basic style, just remember to use drawing swaps more, will try a controller rig next

I do not know if transparency node works, they said yes, but I have not tested it myself, I clear out the node view to make it basic structure

Static transform limits I do not know if they work or not; seems like they work just like normal but be careful not to use duplicate drawings

Animate with pegs as best as possible, remember it is an export engine, it needs to grab data directly from the pegs

You cannot share one deformer to two drawings, each drawing must have it’s own deformer

I tried ‘Transform Switch’ that did not work correctly, showed both export legs instead of hiding one, I will do it manually (Switch drawings for IK , FK)

For game engine, use simple names for the programmer to program in, less nodes the better for programming in the exported the code

Setting Peg pivots is extremely important and takes real planning for game engine, pegs turn into BONE POINTS o----o----o

Pupils, iris and brows, separate the cutters , one for each, even for top and bottom, need to separate and use image swaps to prepare for the emotion

For extra wrinkles, brow lines , use image swaps or game bones on a line (I can show that later) it will work even for bendy lines, so just have to practice

To help programmers; please name pegs names to “BONE_X” “deformers name to “DEF_X”

I am using the Harmony SDK to trouble shoot a lot and find mistakes in my rig with it