Need help transfering drawing layers from one file to another

Hi, I’m very new at this software having only got the perpetual licence a few weeks ago.

I made an animation last year with one of my free trials which I can still open and modify, I’m currently creating a whole new animation that I intend to use the same characters. It’s probably worth pointing out that this old animation didn’t have any proper character rigs, just multiple drawing layers for each of the characters body parts (head, mouth, body, eyebrows etc.) that I animated individually.

Anyway I was under the impression I could simply drag these multiple layers into a new folder created in the symbols library or something similar. Once imported into the new file I plan to just rig them together properly but I’m not getting anywhere with simple drawing transfer and am quite honestly losing my mind over not being able to do what should really be an easy task. I’ve seen various video tutorials showing a stage library so I assumed just create a folder in that, add the drawing layers and then I can import or even just copy and paste the parts into my new animation file but as of right now I’m having no luck whatsoever, there is no stage library, just symbols, harmony premium library and 3D models. I can only drag the layers into the symbols library but from there I have no “right to modify” option from right clicking them. I really don’t know what I’m doing and am on the verge of giving up on this altogether and just redrawing the characters from scratch, which I really don’t want to do. Surely there’s a way to do this without having to redraw these characters every time I want to make a new scene?

Someone please help me and if you can, please explain it as simply as possible as I’m a complete n00b with this software at the moment, still really learning the basics and am so wound up I can barely think straight.

Okay, so I think I’ve found a solution but I’m doubtful it’s entirely the right one. I simply went to File > Import > Images and selected the .tvg of one of the individual drawing layers from the older animations elements folder and added it to my new animation as a new drawing layer. I’m assuming now this means I can import the alternate versions of the same drawing and add it to the layer (as well as importing the other drawings as separate layers too). Once again though I’m very inexperienced with this kind of stuff, this is by far the most complex piece of software I’ve owned. So I have little confidence that I’m doing things properly, any advice would still be very much appreciated!

Hello Ben,

If there is only one or a couple of drawings involved importing the .tvg file is a good solution.
If you need an entire layer or layers in the new scene then it’s probably better that you make
a template in the library. Templates you save to the library will be available in any scene you
open.

More detailed info is available here:
https://docs.toonboom.com/help/harmony-14/premium/reference/view/library-view.html?Highlight=library

This tutorial is part of the Layout and Posing section but it covers use of the Library in detail:
https://learn.toonboom.com/modules/layout-posing-library

-ron