In the competitive world of 2D animation, efficiency and quality make all the difference. That’s why major studios —from Disney Television Animation to Cartoon Network and Netflix Animation— rely on Toon Boom Harmony and Storyboard Pro to create their productions.
But beyond the software itself, what truly sets professionals apart is how they take advantage of every tool to save time, improve motion fluidity, and maintain visual consistency.
Today we’ll share 10 tricks that studios use in Toon Boom to take their animation to the next level.
1. Take advantage of Deformers for advanced animation
Deformers allow you to manipulate a character’s joints and curves without redrawing every frame.
Studios use them for complex animations like facial expressions or body twists, maintaining a natural appearance with less effort.
2. Use nodes to compose effects and automate tasks
The Node View system in Harmony is one of its most powerful features.
It allows artists to connect layers, effects, lights, and shadows visually, avoiding a messy timeline.
In large productions, this speeds up global color changes, scene adjustments, and asset reuse.
3. Create reusable Templates for characters and backgrounds
Instead of starting from scratch, professional teams save their rigs, poses, or backgrounds as Templates.
This keeps a consistent visual style across all episodes and drastically reduces production time.
4. Integrate Toon Boom with Photoshop and After Effects
Many studios combine digital drawing in Photoshop with animation and compositing in Harmony.
This integration keeps hand-painted textures and shading while ensuring compatibility.
Then, the final sequence is exported to After Effects for additional camera, particle, or color grading effects.
5. Use the built-in 3D camera for realistic depth and motion
Toon Boom lets you move the camera within a 3D space, ideal for dynamic or parallax shots.
Shows like “The Owl House” or “Archer” use this feature to create depth and cinematic effects without external 3D software.
6. Automatically sync audio with lip movements (Lip-Sync)
By simply importing an audio file, Toon Boom analyzes the voice and automatically assigns the correct mouth shapes for each phoneme.
A process that once took hours is now fully automated —while keeping the character’s expressiveness intact.
7. Use Node Effects for real-time lighting and shading
Studios apply light and shadow effects directly within the node view, with no intermediate rendering.
This allows real-time adjustment of reflections, blurs, glows, or gradients without altering the original drawing.
8. Animate with Peg Layers for natural movement
Pegs let animators control rotation, scale, and position without affecting the base drawings.
They’re essential for smooth, hierarchical motion —for example, moving an entire arm from the shoulder or a head from the neck.
9. Use Harmony Premium Network for collaborative production
In studios with multiple animators, the Premium version enables networked collaboration, where each artist works on a section of the project without interfering with others.
This speeds up production and prevents versioning errors.
10. Use linked Colour Palettes for global changes
When a series has dozens of characters, studios create centralized palettes.
With one click, they can adjust a costume color or the overall tone of an episode without reopening every file.
Bonus: combine Storyboard Pro and Harmony for a complete pipeline
The integration between Storyboard Pro and Harmony lets teams import animatics with timing, audio, and camera data already in place.
This smooths the transition between pre-production and animation, eliminating redundant work.
Toon Boom with Aufiero Informática
At Aufiero Informática, we are official resellers of Toon Boom in Latin America, offering licenses, support, and consulting services for studios, universities, and artists.
Whether you’re starting your first production or optimizing your workflow, we can help you implement the best Toon Boom Harmony and Storyboard Pro practices.
💬 Contact us to learn about licensing options and professional training.
