I’ve been working on a file for a few days and it’s just developed a problem. In each of the layers, the outline has become offset from the colour fill, the colour fill does not sit within the outline but off to one side. If I continue to draw in those layers the issue continues. If I draw a brush line (with line visibility activated) then lift the pen, the colour fill will jump to one side when I lift the pen but the blue outline stays in place. Any new layers I create aren’t affected, and the problem is only visible in camera view, not drawing view. Anyone know why this is happening, and how I can get those lines and fills to match up again?
I don’t think it’s the Z depth, but here’s another clue: when I turn off the visibility on some of the bones (further up the hierarchy) the colour levels pop back into place, neatly within their lines. The visibility on the bones has an effect on the colour fills but not on the lines. The changes also appear in render view and on the rendered files. I’m new to Harmony so this could be some elementary rigging mistake.
Camera view only suggests a Z depth difference between art layers. I am not sure this is even possible to change between art layers but it is the first thing I would look for.
What does this look like in a final render file and also in a render view?
If you apply some sort of transformation, especially deformation or skewing, you might have issues with using drawing tools on the Camera View. Elements affected by deformations are better edited in the Drawing View where they are seen in their original form unaffected by keyframes.
Sorry if I misunderstood, but the issue also shows on Render View? I’m not sure what we are seeing on the image you provided, is it an offset of the strokes of the colour fills? If you press K to make the strokes invisible wouldn’t that result on the “normal”, intended result? Are you using line and colour art in the Line Art and Colour Art sublayers or using the same art layer?
Thanks, this is starting to make sense I think. I’m very new to Harmony so apologies if I’m missing some very basic things. Yes to both: the issue shows on render view, and in the image the colour fills are offset from the lines. If you press K the lines disappear and it looks correct but I just wanted to understand why those lines are offset at all. If I’m partway through animating and decide that a hand needs an extra shape, I have to cope with the outlines being in the wrong place… but is that just because I’m drawing into camera view and not drawing view? Is the issue simply that deformers deform the visible elements and ignore the invisible outlines, leaving them behind, so to speak, when a deformation is applied? And that it shouldn’t be an issue because if I was working correctly I wouldn’t be referring to those line in camera view anyway?
The system set in place for cut-out animation is one in which you will do all artwork (well, most, at least), drawings and ink and paint, before animating and before applying deformations to the elements. In traditional animation it’s more or less indifferent if you use the Camera or Drawing Views. The Drawing View would be used mainly when you want to quickly work on a drawing layer without dealing with all the information you might have visible on the Camera View. But if you’re animating in cut-out and apply deformations you should use the Drawing view, because it’s where you’ll see the drawings in their original form, not affected by transformations and keyframing. This makes sense because you wouldn’t be able to draw a straight line on a drawing layer that is deformed in the Camera View. This also means that there might be some visual oddities which are not necessarily defects or bugs.
To summarize, in cut-out, using deformation or skewing, if you want to edit or add drawings it’s better to use the Drawing View for that purpose and the Camera View for keyframe animation.