Hi. I have a couple of questions. I want to create a human walk/run cycle completely from scratch on Synfig. The problem is that, even though I now have Synfig for Mac OS X, I am not so sure how to set images as keyframes on Synfig or create the automatic in-betweens. Bear in mind that I just built Synfig a few months ago and, since I have been busy with college, I never dabbled with it yet. Now, since the semester is over, I can concentrate more on Synfig. I am mainly a Flash user and I know that Flash and Synfig are different. So, any help is duly appreciated.
P.S.: Also, special thanks to htodd for setting up the repositories for Synfig on Fink. Again, duly appreciated, as always.
Hi artisan21,
The task that you’re accomplishing is one of the most repeated on any animation tutorial but not for that the easiest to master.
I can show you the technical recipe to include the ingredients of the recipe, but the cooking has to be done by you and there is not magic wand for that.
First collect the infromation about the walk you want to produce. It involves create, import or obtain the keyframes. Walks usually have 8 keyframes: one per leg from: contact, down, pass, up
Second is to import the raster images of the keyframes into Synfig Studio using the Image Layer and animating the file parameter. See this example I did for the 4 legs walk cycle. Create a Synfig’s keyframe on each frame you animate the filename.
Theird is to trace the first keyframe or the keyframe you consider more comfortable to trace.
Fourth is to animate the traced charcter keyframe by keyframe. It needs:
Take account the lock keyframe status dependin on what part are you animating.
Modify the interpolation of some keyframes or individual values to avoid the damn feet sliping.
Rework back and forward the animation fine tunning the keyframes.
Add aditional waypoints between keyframes when needed.
One further challenge is to make the walk across the screen. That needs usage of onionskin and a lot of patience.
Hope it helps.
This is artisan21 back again, with a question that I should already know about, but am having a hard time to grasp in just Synfig. Forgive my naivete, but here is my question. I created a walk file with eight raster layers, each single layer being a frame showing the walk cycle. Now, how do I assign a certain layer to a certain keyframe? That is what I am having the most trouble with in Synfig. Just a newbie with a newbie question. The other topic from Genete did help as well, however. For any further future assistance that I receive, thanks. it is duly appreciated, as always.
Hi artisan21,
Suppose you have created your waypoints to the file name change (the file parameter of the Import Image layer) in order to animate the images, at frames: 0f, 4f, 8f, 12f, 16f, 20f, 24f and 28f. Then, in order to create a synfig’s keyframe for each file change, just place the time cursor at each frame and press the “+” button at the keyframe’s panel.
-G
