Disclaimer:
First of all I want to thank all and every Synfig contributors for their awesome work.
Second - I do not consider my notes or my ideas to come from a person with professional animation expertise NOR as a typical synfig user. I’m new to this software and all the notes I wrote down so far are a unordered collection of things that came to my mind on my very first project with it.
1 deleting selected layers should be possible with “del” or “backspace” (maybe also add a drag & drop recycle bin icon?)
2 layer icons are not centered (align them left with smaller padding?)
3 filter layer name should be renamed (“halftone” “halftone lines” “halftone colors” instead of 1,2,3 ?)
4 single click activate text entry field (dropdown lists -> scrollwheel) - BOOLEAN values only toggle is double click!
5 value fields are too long (0.000000000000564 + two rows!)
6 pressing “tab” should behave like “enter” when changing field values
7 “Amount” often is not really descriptive (use “visibility”, “opacity”, …?)
8 mouseover help in params window would be a great help!
9 right click should always result in the same menu (not depend on what is below it)
10 hiding scrollbars + ruler should be possible to save space (also assign shortcuts to toggle them on/off)
11 the ruler could be smaller
12 little ruler stripes not 100% black (a faint gray is enough - no need to emphasize the optical impression of the ruler)
13 key lock icon does not indicate enough (yellow icon is too faint! - maybe a completely new icon)
14 set angle ducks always on top of radius ducks (so that both ducks are always on one ring - removing visual clutter)
15 triangle, square, diamond, circle, cross ducks to represent the different types of ducks type (maybe color them as well, but it is hard for some people to distinguish only by color)
16 add an indicator that shows when layers are in a group (maybe link the indicator to the group)
17 “not in animate” error should use the animation icon instead of warning signal. firts line should be fat and say “key is blocked” then the explanation.
18 duck type mouseover would be a great help (like: “rotate duck of object1”)
19 auto center polygons/objects function
20 import multiple images at once
21 dragged objects should be transparent (to see where you drag them into)
22 “remove layer from a group” righclick option should be hidden when no groups are assigned at all
23 ctrl+clicking on a key should automatically trigger a “jump to” (or provide another shortcut for it)
24 name sorting in param window only works on “Type” for some reason (bug?)
25"DYN" marking is way too faint! use italic font and gray text or seomthing else (on uneven grayed lines often not visible at all!)
26 dragging keys should display their new time position (normal timeline - a mousover?)
27 time loop layer could create “faint” pseudo keys (or otherwise indicate the generation of extra keys)
28 offer to re-show last rendered preview
29 100% zoom toggle does not indicate current zoom status but toggles to multiple sizes!? even mouseover shows wrong text (how can i know what 100% actually is?!)
30 it should be possible to add keys without touching ducks or entering numbers (just ctrl+click on params adds current value on current position)
31 tool hint in status bar during mouseover would be great (like GIMP statusbar)
32 CRASH when zooming in too close!
33 when opening recent file automatically replace the untouched standard project
34 when moving a seleced layer the new layer taking its position gets selected, too (bug?!)
35 tool shortcuts should be shown in tool mouseover!
36 it should be possible to edit in-canvas keys when the timeline is exactly upon them -> uneditable ducks should be marked then!
37 set loop range for preview inside the project canvas timeline (so that it is visible where it starts/ends)
38 visual duck <-> param connection (icon and/or color should be shared so that values on canvas can more easily be connected with the listed values in param window)
39 a basic sound support to animate thinks according to sound should be possible.
40 link embedded (imported) synfig canvases/files in param window (maybe double clicking them should open like in “canvas browser” ?)
41 mark all canvas layers being locked in the main layer window (with extra icon for canvas layers?)
42 mousewheel should zoom by default, (left<->right, top<->down with shitft and control) more similar to the curves zoom behaviour
43 automatically create new encapsulation layers when dragging one layer over the another (also add shortcut shift+g to encapsulate mulstiple selected layers?)
44 offer to disable CPU intesive layers for preview (adding a per layer setting, and a setting in preview)
45 are “apply fill color” and “apply outline color” swapped when rightclicking colors in param window (bug?)
46 selecting multiple layers with keys only shows the top layers keys (higlight the top layer especially only?)
47 select key from multiple layers to move/edit simultaniously (select keys by dragging a rubberband?)
48 replacing imported images should be detected and images refreshed automatically
49 after assigning a random value the original duck (starting point for randomness) should be an editable duck
50 add icons to keytypes in right-click menu
51 cloning layers would be a nice feature (no via canvas)
52 window positions should be saved (maybe even in project files?)
THANK YOU FOR SYNFIG!
==edit==
using synfig 0.62.00 on Ubuntu 9.10