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How to Copy and Retime a Complete Character Pose Including Deformer Keys in Toon Boom Harmony

To copy a complete character pose in Toon Boom Harmony, select the Timeline cells for every layer contributing to that pose, including pegs, drawing substitutions and deformation layers. Key the source pose where necessary, copy it with the appropriate paste mode, and paste onto the same layers at the destination frame. When retiming, move those layers’ keys together so the deformation stays aligned with the character.

This guide covers reusing a pose later in the same rig and adjusting its timing. The workflow uses Harmony 24 documentation and Toon Boom’s current Help Centre guidance. It assumes you already have a working character rig with animated deformers.

October 29, 20267 min readBy Metlivi Editorial Team

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Section 1

What must a complete character pose include?

A visible pose combines several kinds of information. Drawing frames hold artwork and substitution choices, while keyframes record transformation values. Harmony supports keyframes on pegs, deformers and other transformation nodes, so copying drawing cells alone does not capture every animated component. Toon Boom’s explanation of drawing frames and keyframes describes these separate roles.

Before copying, inspect the character’s Timeline hierarchy. Identify the master peg, local pegs, deformation chains and drawing layers that contribute to the pose. Include any additional animated controls the rig depends on. Treat this as a selection checklist: a control outside your selected hierarchy needs explicit attention.

For example, a curved character tail may depend on both its parent peg’s rotation and its deformation chain. Copying only the peg can reproduce the tail’s placement while leaving its curve different. The practical rule is to select the layers that produce the appearance, rather than relying on the visible outline of the character.

Section 2

Prepare a source pose with explicit keys

Start at the frame containing the pose you want to reuse. Expand the hierarchy once to confirm that the relevant deformation layers belong to the character selection. Then collapse the character’s master peg when you want to operate on its hierarchy together.

Harmony’s documented pose-blocking procedure is to collapse the master peg, select the frame cell and use Add Keyframe. The default shortcut is F6. With the Flash keyboard shortcut configuration, F6 also duplicates a drawing, so the toolbar button is the clearer choice when your shortcut configuration is uncertain. Harmony 24: Creating Keyframes documents this procedure and shortcut exception.

Inspect the deformation layers afterward. The objective is a reusable source frame with explicit keys on the animated components you need. A pose that looks correct while you scrub may otherwise depend on values held or interpolated from another frame.

If you adjust the source pose, use the Transform tool with Animate Current Frame enabled. Harmony distinguishes animation controls, displayed in green with Transform, from rigging controls, displayed in red with the Rigging tool. Its deformer tutorial also recommends establishing keys across the model before creating later poses. Harmony 24: How to Use Deformers.

Section 3

Choose a paste mode that matches the task

Choose the paste mode before copying. Harmony provides three Timeline modes, and those modes also affect dragging. Harmony 24: About Copying Motions defines what each transfers.

Your intended result	Paste mode	What it transfers
Reproduce the pose, including its drawing substitutions	All Drawing Attributes	Drawing exposure and keyframes
Reuse transformations while retaining destination artwork	Keyframes Only	Keyframes
Reuse drawing choices without transferring transforms	Exposures Only	Drawing exposure

For a complete visual pose, All Drawing Attributes is usually the appropriate starting point. Choose Keyframes Only deliberately when the destination should keep its existing drawing substitutions. Exposures Only cannot transfer the deformer animation keys needed for this task.

Paste mode and layer selection solve different problems. Selecting All Drawing Attributes does not compensate for omitting a deformation chain from the selection. Confirm both before proceeding.

Section 4

Copy the pose onto the same rig

Use the Timeline’s frame cells for the operation. For an initial test, choose an unused destination frame within the scene and note any existing keys or substitutions that the paste would replace.

At the source frame, select one frame-wide column of cells across all contributing character layers. You can use the collapsed character hierarchy after checking its contents, or explicitly select the relevant rows in an expanded hierarchy.
Set the Timeline paste mode to All Drawing Attributes, or Keyframes Only if that is your intended result.
With the Timeline active, choose Edit > Copy Cells from the Timeline, or press Ctrl+C on Windows/Linux or Command+C on macOS.
Select the destination frame cell, keeping the destination aligned with the same source layers.
Choose Edit > Paste Cells in the Timeline, or press Ctrl+V or Command+V.

These are Harmony’s documented Timeline copy-and-paste commands. Keeping the operation within the same rig avoids introducing a separate layer-mapping task. Harmony 24: Using Timeline Paste Modes.

Compare the source and destination before changing timing. Check the silhouette, local rotations, curved shapes and drawing substitutions. Expand a deformation chain and inspect its destination keys as well. A matching overall position is only one part of a successful copy.

Section 5

Retime the character and deformer keys together

Once the pasted pose matches, select its frame cells across the same contributing layers. Release the selection gesture, then click and drag the selected cells to the new frame. Toon Boom specifies that the first click selects cells and the subsequent click initiates movement; dragging immediately from an unselected cell creates a selection instead. How to move frames and keyframes on the Timeline.

The same guidance states that moving frames in a collapsed hierarchy moves aligned frames and keyframes throughout that hierarchy. Expand it when you need to inspect or select particular layers. For a whole-character timing change, confirm that every required deformation chain is included before moving the selection.

Distinguish two timing decisions. Moving one pose changes its spacing relative to neighboring poses. Moving a selected sequence by the same frame offset preserves the spacing inside that sequence. Stretching a sequence requires changing those internal intervals as well.

Worked example: move a pose or stretch a sequence

Suppose three complete poses sit at frames 12, 20 and 28. These frame numbers are illustrative. To move the sequence later without changing its internal timing, add eight frames to every selected pose. To make the sequence take twice as long while keeping its start at frame 12, double each pose’s distance from that start.

Pose	Original frame	Shift later by 8	Double spacing from frame 12
A	12	20	12
B	20	28	28
C	28	36	44

Apply the chosen destination frames to the complete layer selections, including deformer keys. If the section contains extra breakdowns or intermediate deformation keys, account for them too. Moving only the three main pose columns would leave those additional keys at their original times.

Section 6

Decide whether the pose should hold or interpolate

Copying the correct endpoint does not determine how the character reaches it. Harmony’s motion keyframes generate interpolation between poses. Stop-motion keyframes keep values constant until the next keyframe. Harmony 24: About Keyframes explains both behaviors.

For a held pose, inspect the outgoing interpolation on the contributing peg and deformation channels. For a smooth transition, preview the intervening frames after retiming. A longer interval gives the transition more frames, but you still need to judge its movement and easing.

Also check the drawing exposure across the interval. Harmony’s deformer tutorial treats extending artwork exposure and establishing animation keys as separate steps. A correctly keyed deformation still needs its drawing to be exposed at the frames where it should appear. How to Use Deformers.

Section 7

Diagnose an incomplete copy before repeating it

Use the location of the mismatch to narrow the next check. This diagnostic sequence follows from the separate roles of artwork, transformations and timing described above.

The character moves correctly, but a curved part differs: inspect whether the deformation layers were selected and have destination keys.
The curves match, but a drawing variant differs: check whether Keyframes Only was selected and whether the required drawing substitution was copied.
The endpoint matches, but movement between poses differs: inspect intermediate keys, interpolation and easing.
Dragging produces a blue selection without moving it: finish selecting, release, then click and drag the selection.
Editing the pasted artwork changes the source artwork: check the drawing ID. Timeline copies reuse the drawing; independent artwork edits require duplicating it. Drawing frames and keyframes.

Finish by comparing the source and pasted pose, then previewing the entire retimed interval. Check the frame before arrival, the pose itself and the following transition. When the artwork, peg transforms and deformation keys remain coordinated, the copied pose is ready for further animation.

Section 8