Hi guys, I’m using Toon Boom Harmony Essentials and I’m importing some PNG files to make a cut out character - each PNG is a pixel art body part with transparency around it.
They import OK with the transparent area looking indeed transparent. However when they are layered up on top of each other, the transparency area becomes more visible. You start to faintly see the area which should be tranparent.
With one on it’s own it’s no so visible, but as you add like 5 or more, the frame of PNG files start to become very obvious.
Oddly enough, in unrendered view - these outlines aren’t visible (great!) but in rendered view you can see them clearly. Attached screenshots for reference.
Is there any way to stop this? Could it be something to do with PNG file (attached one).
Thanks for the reply! After your suggestion, I tried experimenting and got it working - but in a slightly a long winded way.
I’m using the programs called Hexels and GIMP to do the PNG’s - exporting with premult turned on or off has the same effect when importing into Toon Boom.
But if I open the PNG in PAINT.NET, and use magic wand to select the transparent area and hit DELETE and re-save the file, it works! So I’ll take that
Thanks
Indeed it’s a long process. But have you tried to export your pngs with premult on, and in Harmony, go to the layer properties of your image, and select “premult straight” or “premult with black” ?
That might do the trick. No need to remove manually an empty zone.
Thanks for the suggestion. If go to “Layer Properties” there doesn’t appear to be an option for this. Only the “Transformation” tab is viewable with there, I think the “Drawing” tab has these options (from googling) but I can’t see how it access that. Maybe it’s not available in Essentials, which is what I’m using.
Yeah. There is not much option in Essentials for the transparency type for bitmap drawing.
You can try importing them as color so that it creates an image as texture if the result can be cramp color to alpha if the soft edge is improved. You can yet edit (or erase) the edge once it becomes a texture image.
The PNG is always tricky since each layer contains the alpha and depending on how it is made, the result may be affected. You can also try converting it to PSD with transparency black or transparent if the result is better in Harmony Essentials.
