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December 2012
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Toon Boom Animation Inc.
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Publication Date
2013-01-15
OWHP101HAR10EN
Production
There are several different 2D/3D pipelines that are possible to achieve through Harmony.
Both 1 and 2 can be achieved with the Animate line, as well as Harmony; 3 and 4 are particular to Harmony.
The simplest 2D/3D pipeline is simply to export an image sequence from your 2D animation software to your 3D animation
software. When doing this, it’s important to export individual elements to give you the flexibility of placement in your 3D
software. For example, each character should have its own image sequence. Exporting image sequences of different layers
is simple to do in Harmony, as you can configure multiple Write nodes for each layer you want to export separately.
Some productions will have different pipelines for different shots too. In other words, if one shot is 100% 3D, they’ll do that
in the 3D software itself, then if the next shot is only 20% 3D, they’ll do the integration in Harmony instead.
Another consideration is the availability of hardware and software. If you will render an image sequence out of Harmony, it’s
very light and easy to render. You also don’t need to have any software but Harmony on your machine.
Advantages
The advantage of this pipeline is that you can work with any 3D software or compositing software to achieve this task.
It is equally possible to export an image sequence from your 3D software, or to export a movie file, and to import this
image sequence or movie file into Harmony.
Disadvantages
The limitations of working with this pipeline are that it is very difficult to make changes to the 3D scene, because if you need
to make a change, you have to go back into your 3D software, make the change, render the sequence, and reimport it.
Advantages
The advantage of this pipeline is that you can see your 3D sequence as you’re animating your 2D sequence, which really
helps the animator achieve a natural look and feel. Also, you can use any 3D software.
This is a pipeline that is sometimes forgotten in the world of 2D/3D integration, but can still prove extremely fruitful and
interesting. One of the major challenges with the 2D/3D pipeline in general is the aspect of rendering, and the rotoscoping
pipeline avoids that entirely. Instead of rendering 3D models, you trace over them for a 2D look.
Disadvantages
Disadvantages are that there is more drawing involved. However, with some of the improvements in the Harmony
paperless workflow, such as the new True Pencil, Deform, and improvements to the Xsheet and Shift and Trace, drawing
itself has become faster and easier to achieve digitally.
Advantages
Rendering your 3D sequence can be time-consuming to set up, because you need to texture your 3D model, then you need
to set up the shaders, add some lighting into your scene, and finally you then need to perform the final render. Depending
on the complexity of the scene, the lighting, and the effects, 3D render times can be quite long, and this means that you
need to spend more to set up a more advanced render farm. You also have to budget to finish your production earlier in
order to give yourself enough time to render your 3D scene.
By rotoscoping, you’re not actually rendering any 3D. You’re just importing your object, then drawing on top of it. This may
actually be the cheapest 2D/3D integration solution, depending on the project.
Advantages are that you can use any 3D software. The animator can have the freedom to push the animation beyond the
limits of 3D. Render times are extremely low.
If you take advantage of Storyboard Pro 3D to do your pre-production, then you can also export directly to Harmony. This
will save you time in setting up your scenes, and it will even automatically import any OSB files that you were working with in
Storyboard Pro 3D.
This is a good option when you want the animators to be able to animate characters within a 3D environment. Because the
character is in the environment, you don’t have to worry about clipping issues that you would have if you were simply
drawing the character on top. Say, for example, you have a character sitting at a table. If part of the character is in front of
the 3D object and part of it is behind it, you can simply draw it this way in Harmony . However, if you are compositing final
image sequences instead of working with the original model, you would have to go through and painstakingly erase out the
parts of the character that are behind the image sequence.
The real complication in this pipeline takes place during Phase 2. In order to preserve the quality of the render that was
achieved through the 3D software, we decided to simply use the 3D software. The way this works under the hood of the
software is that there is a scripting interface that allows Harmony to communicate with Maya through MEL script. Being
able to communicate with Maya means that we can open a session of Maya Batch and render, which allows you to preserve
the lighting, textures, and shading that were created in the original 3D file.
We do currently have some support using scripts for Pixie and 3Delight. Although pipelines for software other than
Autodesk Maya are not officially supported, there is a possibility to work with other technology.
So what do you need to know about this pipeline to make it work for you?
Before you import into Harmony, you should also complete the lighting, texturing, and shading of your models. If you want
to create generic lighting for a Toon-shader look, then you can create some ambient lighting, and then parent the lights to
your model so they move along with your model.
If you are using Harmony 9, then you need to obtain the appropriate plug-in for your version of Maya, so you can export an
OSB file format from Maya to import into Harmony. Refer to the User Guide for more information on how to export your
model.
If you’re using Harmony 10, then you can simply export an FBX file for import into Harmony.
You need to also save your original .mb file, since this is the file that Maya will use to render the object during the render
phase.
Animating in Harmony
When you create a new Harmony file and import an FBX or OSB model, you can resize, reposition, and scale the object with
the Transform tool. Just make sure to turn on Enable 3D, following the instructions in the User Guide on how to manipulate
the 3D model.
During the Animation stage of your project, it’s not necessary for the animator to use Maya at all. They can import the
object, move it around, and create 2D layers to draw on, without needing Maya.
With Harmony 10, the animator can even export an OpenGL render of their animation on top of the OpenGL version of the
model, without needing to use Maya. This means that the only computers that need Maya on them are the ones that will do
the final render.
In addition to having both softwares available on the machine, you also need to make sure that you have obtained a 3D
licence from Toon Boom. Contact your sales rep, sales@toonboom.com, or support@toonboom.com, to obtain this
license. The 3D part of the license is included automatically with Harmony 10.
Next, you need to set up an environment variable in order to open up a communication port between Harmony and Maya.
For instructions on how to set this up, refer to the User Guide. This process is a little more technical, so if you need
assistance, don’t hesitate to contact support@toonboom.com
For any objects that you’ve imported into your Harmony file, you need to also copy the original .mb file into the same
location, so Harmony can find the file it needs to complete the render. The file should be renamed to match the name of the
element in your Harmony folder. You should also copy the texture files into this location as well. Follow the instructions in
the User Guide to copy these files correctly.
Now that you have both softwares installed on the machine, the right licenses, and you`ve opened up communication
between them, you’re ready to open Harmony. Open a scene file in which you’ve imported some 3D models. The next step
is to import into Harmony the script module that will tell Maya to render each 3D object. For more information on how to
import the script module, refer to the User Guide.
With the setup complete, you can test the render by clicking the Render View button to render the current frame. If all is
successful, you will see the 2D and 3D objects rendered and composited together automatically.
If your 3D object does not render, it could be one of a couple things. First, if your 3D object does not show up at all, you
may not have your 3D licence installed. Second, if the 3D object shows up in OpenGL, but does not render, then there is
probably a problem with the handshake between Harmony and Maya. Verify that you have both softwares on the machine,
and that the environment variable is set up, and that you have imported the RenderMayaBatch script into your Network
View according to the instructions in the User Guide. Finally, check to make sure that you have copied the original .mb file
and the textures into the elements directory of the object. If all else fails, contact support@toonboom.com for further
assistance.