Synfig is simply incredible! Please support it!

Last time I tried synfig, the program was both confusing and buggy to the extreme - leaving me with the impression of an interesting piece of software of little practical use. Synfig is free and opensource (GPL) like Blender.

Today, I decided to try synfig again and came away very, very impressed. Featurewise, this is already the Blender of the vector animation world. Once you understand how properties are linked together, the layer system works and experience the animation of the bsplines, you’ll realise how powerful this software is.

The first time round, I saw the animations and was skeptical mainly because of frequent crashes and complete confusion. Now I understand how very possible these animations would be to create on a stable version of synfig:

http://www.bridgetone.com/voria/movies/prologue.mov

http://www.bridgetone.com/voria/movies/wolf.mov

http://www.bridgetone.com/voria/movies/eye.mov

Like Blender this software has commercial roots but is now under GPL. Like Blender it is powerful but unlike Blender it doesn’t yet have the strong user base it deserves. Synfig seems to be having trouble finding developers and taking off.

For those of you willing to try it, let me share with you what I discovered - like gimp, synfig uses right click menus. Everything in synfig is based on layers (effects, objects, everything) and groups of layers (encapsulated). Everything is animatable (and I mean everything) - every vertex on a bspline can be keyframed. Anyway, if you have any questions, I’ll help where I can.

Quite frankly, I am simply blown away. Along with freestyle, I haven’t seen such a deserving piece of software in a long time. Please support synfig, it is awesome.

http://www.synfig.com/

Here is the windows build I used. It is *almost *stable enough to work with and you should be saving often anyway: :rolleyes:

http://atrus.mmaa.ru/synfig/

Koba.

P.S> I am considering posting this on “News and Chat” cause the “Other Software” forum gets little love. I really feel strongly about giving great OSS software attention. What do you think?

P.P.S> There are a couple of synfig threads on blenderartists already - none of which where people say what they think of it. I hope this program gets stable and grows a userbase.

EDIT: It is such a shame the drawing tools were taken out (can be enabled but very buggy). It supported tablet too! A stable synfig with the draw tool - animation nirvana!

i agree with everything you said…this prog is amasing. when i had my first crash with it, and restarted synfig the program loaded back my previous dabbling before the crash i knew, this is a software for me…for vector graphics i tried to use the beta program called expression, but it always had the “one day the fun is gona end” feeling, so when microsoft finaly decided to end the beta testing the only good vector drawing program left for me is synfig. i toyed with inkscape, but hey, animation with it is out of question. and synfig was the first vector program where i discovered that you can change the width of the drawing line on every bspline knot.
frikkin awesome! and its rendering capabilities too!

Yes, the last release of Synfig is quite buggy, but there has been so much work that has gone into CVS recently. I compiled a recent CVS snapshot a couple weeks ago and found that it has come a long long way in stability. There are about 3 or 4 new developers who’ve joined up in the last few months and so the developement has become quite active. This project may survive (and grow) after all.

There are about 3 or 4 new developers who’ve joined up in the last few months and so the developement has become quite active.
Good to here it!

Synfig was the first vector program where i discovered that you can change the width of the drawing line on every bspline knot.

Really? How?

What I don’t understand is that those incredible animations look like the product of a stable production environment so how come synfig had so many bugs when it first became open source?

So…should I put this on “News And Chat” or not? This isn’t a technical enquiry for synfig really…more of a discussion.

Koba

early releases of synfig had a controller for editing width visualy, like you draw a line, you selected one knot, right clicked on it, and there was an option to change width. so when you clicked it you was presented with a new pair of control vertices that you could move around and see the changes live. in newer releases they dont enabled this by default, i dont know why. but you still can manipulate them oldschool wise…
koba…create a bline consisting a few knots. look on “params, children, timetrack, curves, canvas metadata” panel. params should be present by default in the left. inside this you can see the bline-s properties you just draw. like color, position, softness, etc…you need to look for “+list Vertices list” and expand that. there are the knots that build up your drawing, search out which you want to change and expand it, you can modify the width property there and voila!
have fun.

I too wondered how those demo videos were made with Synfig as it is. A behind the scenes video/paper would probably gather much interest and educate people on how to use the program.

I hope Synfig eventually gets svg support. And more tutorials.

Synfig eventually gets svg support

I expect svg import can be done and maybe svg export of geometric layers only. All those many filter effects (eg noise distort) would be impossible to implement in svg. I talked to one of the developers yesterday about it.

Koba

Updated :Synfig Studio revision #481 for Windows!
Date:08 May

Download here:
http://atrus.mmaa.ru/synfig/

thank you, danke sehr, koszike szepen, muchos gracias, domo arigato, gratzie, gracias, merci beaucoup, terima kasih, multum’ esc, d’akujem!
me likey this prog very much :smiley:

Thank you Vassilios,

I’ve downloaded the new version. Is there anywhere I can follow the changes that have been made? CVS comits or something?

Koba

Yea synfig is one incredible software. At least this is what Linux users would have for now. But even as a 2D animator itself, it’s awesome.I havent play much with it, but seeing the example moview… whew. It surely can do anything that flash do.

It surely can do anything that flash do

Actually, it can do a hell of a lot more. The number of filters and effects is astounding.

Unfortunately, this means it can’t export to vector formats. Personally, I wish it could export to .svg or .flash even if many effect layer types had to be ignored in the process.

Koba

I’ve tried to run the latest windows compile, but I get an ‘libsynfig-0.dll’ is missing error? Anyone knows about how to solve this?

Did you install both synfig core and synfig studio to their default directories with the two dependancies (gtk+ and gtkmm)? Looks like you are missing a .dll.

EDIT: The libsynfig-0.dll is meant to be in the bin directory of the synfig folder. You couldn’t have installed both parts!

Koba

daggnabit is my favorite word again.

libglibmm-2.4.1.dll missing error has no solution for me… first, I cannot even find the dll on the net.

I’m XP, I am current on GTK and GKmm.

Just ppppp[plop]

I read on the site that he will work for money to debug Synfig. I am content with that. I like working for money too, and I don’t like putting quarters in vending machines that eat change while taunting ya with sodas behind the glass :smiley:

Yay, Synfig

don’t use current version of GTK and GTKMM, use ones that synfig provided.

Yeah, uh. I am not trying to say that Synfig is not cool or that it will not be cool in the future, but, after getting home and going what I just went through to try an get this app to work…To discuss it, would blow my cool.

I believe I am alright in saying that, for me, this application is not worth what I just went through…And it still wont install, and if I cannot just d.load the app and install it, I’m not gonna give the guy a dime. Sorry.

I know that it’s hard work in ironing out bugs, and maybe someday, someone would grease this programmer’s palm to iron out the windows problem. Because it does suck that I had to muck with libraries that could have broken software that I do like… That works.

Rome was not built in a day, and I mean not to insult the hard creative work of this programmer, but I should not have to be a cheerleader for some app that I don’t believe will ever work on my brand new machine. Even along side the many application I have that never required me to play the pruned poodle(jumping through hoops) and the community of supporters for those apps never made me feel like donation = obligation. Though, I think donation in some forms = appreciation.

I wish Synfig luck. But for now, I’m getting Synfig the “-Fig” off my machine because there really is a problem with Synfig, and not my Libraries, or my machine.

BTW, there is a notable difference between MS Paint and Synfig… MS Paint Works :stuck_out_tongue:

You should make a better comparison than that. the difference between Synfig and Flash… synfig cost for free. Try better than that, other animation softwares cost almost thousands of dollars, like softimage toonz. Yet synfig’s portfolio seems very professional and cost you $0. Trade that with some googling and additional software downloads. I say that’s rather great deal. Even some thousands of dollars worth softwares don’t just install and run too. But it’s your money anyways :D.

because there really is a problem with Synfig, and not my Libraries, or my machine.
Odd. How can you say that when everybody don’t have any complaints with synfig? That’s like saying all people in the world are crazy, while you’re locked in a mental treatment house.Definitely something wrong with your libraries or your machine.

I read on the site that he will work for money to debug Synfig.

Show me a donation page and I’ll make a donation (must be Paypal).

Thanks,

Koba

Lycanthrope,

There is no problem with my machine or libraries. And “everybody” not having problems with synfig, is not true(look at his “forums”).

And my comparison Synfig to MS Paint is also valid. I did not say Synfig was like MS Pain. If that were the case, Synfig would work.

I could, at this point, give a pinch of squirrel poo about synfig being free. I don’t know if synfig sucks or not as an application because it wont install on my system. It IS NOT MY LIBRARIES OR MY MACHINE.

I made a fair comparison of Synfig and MS Paint: MS Paint WORKS and Synfig DON’T

enjoy Synfig and your non-problematic machine and libraries. good luck.