Toon Boom Harmony Plugins

Toon Boom has shown increased openness in recent years:

However, a public SDK for C++ plugins is unlikely due to:

To understand Harmony plugins, it is necessary to distinguish between the different levels of integration:

For those interested in developing their own plugins, Toon Boom offers extensive documentation and resources. Learning to script in Python or JavaScript is a good starting point, as these are commonly used languages for Harmony plugins. Toon Boom Harmony Plugins

Harmony has a built-in script editor using JS (ECMAScript). Scripts can:

Typical use: Rename all layers in a scene, export selected drawings to PNG sequences with specific naming.

The ecosystem is community-driven. The best places to hunt for new tools are: Toon Boom has shown increased openness in recent years:

The primary function of plugins in Harmony generally falls into two categories: Workflow Automation and Creative Expansion.

Workflow Automation is the most common use case. In a high-volume production environment, animators and riggers often perform repetitive tasks, such as renaming hundreds of drawing layers, setting specific keyframes across multiple nodes, or organizing the node view. Plugins can script these actions, binding them to a single button click. This not only saves time but reduces the margin for human error.

Creative Expansion involves adding new tools or effects that do not exist natively. While Harmony has a robust particle system and myriad distortion nodes, third-party developers often create specific texture generators, physics simulators, or import/export bridges that allow Harmony to communicate more fluidly with software like Adobe After Effects or Blender. However, a public SDK for C++ plugins is unlikely due to:

Harmony’s rendering engine uses a node-based compositor. Users can create custom FX nodes by combining existing nodes into a Substitution Group and saving it as a .txn template. These behave like built-in nodes.

Example custom FX node:

Limitation: Cannot introduce new algorithmic processing; only rearrange native nodes.