ToonBoom Harmony

This page contains important troubleshooting info about ToonBoom Harmony.

Zipping projects and cloud storage usage

When working on a project in Harmony, it is important to never work from a network drive or cloud storage. Always keep your project on a local drive before opening it to edit it. Files can become corrupt if you are working from the Render drive, a thumb drive/external HD, or the cloud. When moving a Harmony project to a network drive or cloud, always zip your project folder before copying it; Harmony creates many project files and updates them in a specific order, sometimes this process can be scrambled when moving an uncompressed Harmony project folder to a network drive, causing corrupt files.

Be sure to unzip your file again before opening your project. Opening a zipped Harmony project will result in the frames not showing up in your timeline.

Random black frames in exports

So far we have discovered two causes for random black frames in your exported video files. One cause may be fixed by changing number of render threads to 1. You can find this setting in Edit > Preferences > Render > Multi Threading: change the 0 to 1.

The other cause of black frames is due to OpenGL (a programming language used to communicate with graphics hardware) not being supported by integrated GPU's. Harmony says that there is no solution for the moment. You may want to consider getting a device that has a dedicated graphics card from NVIDIA or AMD. A dedicated GPU is also recommended for other software, such as Premiere and After Effects, and is a worth-while investment.

How to export an .MOV on a Windows PC

Can't export an .MOV? The problem lies with Windows not natively supporting Quicktime codecs, since they are an Apple creation. The solution is to install Quicktime Essentials, which contains the codecs that allow you to export Quicktime videos. Quicktime Essentials are bundled with Quicktime Player, which is no longer supported for Windows, so is a security risk. Fortunately, there is a way to install Essentials without installing the Player. See below for instructions.

First, download Quicktime 7.7.9 for Windows and run the installer. Close all programs, including Harmony, before installing.

Click through the installer until you come to this page. Select the Custom Installation. Click Next.

Deselect everything except Quicktime Essentials. Click Next.

Uncheck the boxes for a desktop icon and automatic updates (you don't need either). Click Install and let it finish.

Once it is finished, restart your computer. When you open Harmony, you should now have the option to export a Quicktime Movie (*.mov).