Skip to content

Targets

▶Video tutorial — coming soon

A target is one Harmony node a pose layer is allowed to move — a peg, a deformation group, a drawing. The target list is how a layer knows which part of the character it owns.

The Targets panel

A layer that is keyed but has no targets blocks Compose, with the reason in the button's tooltip:

The "Eyebrows" layer is keyed but has no targets. Add what it should move to its target list.

Adding and removing

  1. Select the nodes in Harmony's Node View.
  2. Click + in the Targets toolbar.

They arrive nested exactly as they are nested in Harmony — under Top, then their groups, then the node.

− removes the selection. So does Delete while the layer is active.

Selecting a group header and acting on it reaches every target beneath it.

The toolbar

Targets toolbar

Control What it does
Filter… Case-insensitive match against the name, the type and the full node path. A row stays visible if it or any descendant matches; empty groups hide. A 12/98 counter appears while filtering.
All / None Select all rows / clear the selection. Also Ctrl+A and Ctrl+Shift+A while hovering the list.
Funnel Filter attributes — deactivate channels that stay constant across this layer's snaps. Right-click it for Auto-filter static channels at Compose.
Magnify Find the selected target in the Node View.
⇄ Flip Sides — swaps Left ↔ Right within each page. Disabled with a reason when the layer has no pair.
+ / − Add from the Node View selection / remove the selection.

Magnets

The strip under the toolbar holds magnet keywords. Every node whose name contains one is pulled into the list automatically — brow, eyebrow, sobrancelha.

  • Click + to add a keyword; the dialog asks for a Keyword: and lower-cases it.
  • Click the × on a pill to remove it.
  • Magnets are per pose layer, and they travel in presets.

This is what makes a character preset portable: the preset carries the words, and on the next character those words find that character's nodes.

The columns

Column Holds
Name The node's name. Its colour carries meaning — see below.
Type Drawing, Peg, Deform, Group, or Attribute for a channel row.
Side Which grid drives this target. See Pages, Pairs & Sides.
Weight Deform Follow only — how much this point drags with the gaze, 0–1.
Skip Present when Octo Skip Nodes is integrated.

The Side column hides itself when the layer has only one solo page and the concept is trivial.

Columns trade width with their neighbours rather than overflowing: drag a divider and the last column absorbs the slack, and the drag simply stops rather than producing a horizontal scrollbar.

Sorting

Click a header to cycle: 1st click ▼ descending, 2nd ▲ ascending, 3rd back to the original order. Both arrows are grey while unsorted; only the active direction turns white.

Deform chain rows never reorder — scrambling a chain would make it unreadable. And the stored order never changes because you sorted the view.

Name colours

One precedence, resolved in a single pass:

Colour Meaning
Red + a red Σ Conflict — two authors write this node and channel in a way that cannot combine.
Blue Additive — this target is added onto another author's value. A trailing Σ marks the one doing the adding.
Yellow Modified — added since the rig was brought in.
Default Nothing special.

Overlaps

When two layers name the same node, ORC marks the row and says what will happen. The severity follows the blend, not the mere fact of overlapping:

Tint Blend Meaning
Blue Additive The two coexist — one is an offset on top of the other, and zero means no change.
Yellow Override One silently replaces the other on this channel.

Hovering the row lists the other authors by name.

Channels

Expand a target to see its channels — the Harmony attributes this layer drives.

An empty channel list means AUTO: drive whatever the frame implies. That is the default and it is usually right.

A channel that is deactivated renders red with a strike-through, mirroring Harmony's own look. It stays in the list and can be switched back on.

Right-click a channel:

Item
Deactivate channel / Activate channel
Remove channel
Activate all in node
Deactivate all in node

Pegs show their parent composites (POSITION_3D, SCALE_3D…) rather than scalar leaves; deform curves show offset, length0, orientation0, length1, orientation1.

Static channels

A channel whose value is identical at every authored snap is static — it does nothing but cost time. The funnel button deactivates the static set across the selection, or the whole layer if nothing is selected.

Right-click the funnel to enable Auto-filter static channels at Compose and have it happen every time.

Deform chains

Deform targets nest three deep: group › chain › curve — the nesting in the shot at the top of this page, where robin-G › Deformation-eye-2 › 1 › Curve_2 is a target, its chain and one of its curves. Container rows all read Group; leaves read Deform, Peg or Drawing, because a group's members are not all the same kind. Every row shows the node's own name exactly as Harmony has it, so a row in the list and a node in the Node View always read the same.

Each level can carry its own Side and Weight, resolved in one direction:

curve  →  group  →  target

An inherited value is drawn dimmed; setting one explicitly makes it solid. A row always shows the resolved value, so it never lies about what drives it.

A group whose curves disagree shows Mixed — information, never a choice you can pick.

Skip

With Octo Skip Nodes installed and the integration on, each row gets a Skip checkbox. Checking it tags that node with OSN's skip symbol at Compose, so B-navigation walks past it. The node stays perfectly reachable in the Node View.

  • The header checkbox is a binary toggle driven from the rows, so a partial state never traps you.
  • A group header cascades to every leaf under it and shows a tri-state box.
  • Ctrl+Alt+A checks every visible row, Ctrl+Shift+Alt+A unchecks them.
  • A bulk change is one undo step.

The right-click menu

Item Notes
Remove selected Counts the actual leaf rows affected.
Skip selected / Don't skip selected When the Skip column exists.
Copy Side (L) / Copy Sides (7 curves) The scope is in the label, never in whether the row is folded.
Paste Sides / Paste Sides Mirrored Disabled with the reason as its tooltip when the structures do not match.

Performance on big lists

A head with 500+ targets is normal, and the list is built for it: row widgets are created only for what is on screen, a bulk repopulate freezes behind a snapshot of the old list rather than blanking, and a bulk edit takes one undo snapshot rather than one per row.