Has anyone tried using Harmony Pro with the Surface Pro 3?

Hi! I’ve tried searching and, though I’ve found numerous references to Harmony and Surface Pro, I’ve seen nothing so far specifically for Harmony Pro and the Surface Pro 3. Now that Harmony Pro is out, has anyone tried using it on a Surface Pro 3? I’m getting tired of lugging my computer and Wacom tablet around everywhere (I travel internationally) and thought a Surface Pro 3 might be a good alternative to the quite expensive Cintiq Companion 2.

It is not clear which program you are referring to. There is Animate Pro 3 and there are three levels of Harmony 12 (Essentials, Advanced and Premium). The levels of Harmony 12 share the same software engine. Are you referring to Harmony 12?

I don’t have experience with Surface Pro but there are trial versions of all four mentioned. AP3’s PLE does not appear to be available any longer however according to this Surface Pro blog it did work.

http://surfaceproartist.com/blog/2014/5/29/surface-pro-3-what-runs-what-doesnt

If you can find any references to it working with Harmony in the past it probably works well enough with 12 that TB Support can iron out the kinks. I have not read the details. You will have to decide whether user reports are working well enough for you.

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=harmony+12+surface+pro&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

BTW, one other alternative you may not have considered is either a laptop or a Mac Mini with a Cintiq 13HD. The Mac Mini combo would be the most economical but not as practical. Yet it would be the route I would choose FWIW.

Thank you for your response. I did mean Harmony Premium. I’ve been looking at several computer options and some of them have Pro in the name. I guess it just stuck… my intent is to get rid of the computer/drawing tablet combination as that’s what gets tiresome lugging through airports. It would also allow me to eliminate my Android tablet which I carry for note taking and quick hops onto the internet during those meetings that require research.

And then once I’m on the plane, trying to set the computer up so I can use the drawing tablet is a chore - especially when it’s meal time! :stuck_out_tongue: It would be much less hassle if I could draw directly on the screen as with a Cintiq Companion 2. Hence, my search for a Surface or something similar. Wacom’s Cintiq Companion 2 is ridiculously expensive when a Surface may do.

I’ve been looking at the HP Envy x360 but whether or not it’ll work well with a pen is questionable. The same for the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro, though I’ve heard better things about it.

Thank you again.

Toon Boom should tap into this area of tablet PC support. I think TB only puts energy into Wacom. If other things work it is just a consequence of these other brand’s own effort to be Wacom emulators.

I didn’t realize you would use this setup on a plane.

Every Cintiq variant is definitely expensive. I just ordered a Cintiq to arrive Monday. I opted for the lowest investment option of a 13HD. Fortunately I have always liked working smaller scale. I have owned many generations of the smaller sized Wacom tablets. This is my first Cintiq. I have read mostly good things about the 13HD unlike the larger models.

In your case with everything you would be eliminating and your desire to have something to travel with I would feel more justified spending the money on a Cintiq Companion 2. Wacom would be your most reliable option…a considerable factor when on road.

Good luck with your quest.

For what it’s worth I have used Harmony Premium on my Surface Pro 2 and it worked well but the super high screen resolution made it VERY hard to see the menus and screen. It did work though, and I even found a hack to fix that issue and then it worked great. It was still too small of a device for me to use so I sold it. Not that this tells you that it would work with a Surface Pro 3 since that uses an nTrig digitizer and not Wacom. The hardware can absolutely run it though.
I did a review about it from an animator’s perspective if you’d like to see it.

http://www.animationinsider.com/2015/06/the-surface-pro-2-from-an-animators-perspective/

I have a surface pro 2 and it can run harmony pretty well. as mentioned, the small hi-rez screen makes seeing menus a bit tricky, you can adjust the text scale to help make things fit better toyour liking. again, harmony eats up a lot of screen space with menus, etc. I guess its just a matter of getting it to work to your liking. though the screen size is a tad small for drawing, i really love the SP2. (in addition to working on it, im currently using it as a client for Steam’s In-Home Streaming for MGS5 in my livingroom :slight_smile: )

as mentioned, the surface pro 3 has a larger drawing area and NTrig pen. i havent used that with any toonbroom products so im not sure, though i dont see why they wouldnt work? a surface pro 4 is rumored to be announced in a few weeks on oct 9th i think. i would hold tight until then.

The surface pro 3 is a great computer in the sense that it can handle a lot. Harmony runs great.

BUT it is no fun to draw on. Everyone talks about Ntrig (the digitizing tech that is in the surface pro 3) as not having the same levels of pressure as Wacom. This is totally the wrong discussion. The deal killer is that the digitizer is low resolution. What that means is that when you make a quick line, you can’t tell how much guessing it’s doing when you draw. But if you make a slow deliberate line its jaggy as hell. Match that with a super high pixel density screen and it leads to lots of swearing. Especially if your doing clean up on some hand drawn animation. I have done tests with an actual straight edge on the screen and gotten ridiculously jagged lines. It’s like the more careful you are the worse it looks.

It’s maddening. And from the sounds of it the surface pro 4 won’t be any better.

Artists have nice things to say about the pro 2 but it’s got a Wacom digitizer, so yeah, it’s great. The problem with it though is the computer is old and not that powerful to begin with.

Wanna buy my surface pro 3? Seriously I’m selling it because I prefer just a plain old Wacom intuos. I can lose myself drawing with it. With the surface I fight it so much that I just don’t enjoy drawing on it at all.