FBF + Enhancements?

Just figuring if it’s possible. I’m aware that vectoring takes a little more time than bitmap cell drawing, but Synfig’s capabilities eases the animation process tenfold. Regardless, I was wondering if it could have something more.

  1. FBF module by choice. The ability to add/delete frames/keyframes/objects per specific frames as seen in Flash, Retas, Pencil, ToonBoom, etc. And not just normally; I mean QUICK additions and deletions. And by choice, I mean mostly for those who actually want it (like that person who wanted to make anime styled stuff). This would enable Synfig to do some tasks it can’t do by mere shape tweening, like face turning, quick cell change, etc. To make it simple, there could be an option like “Enable FBF” or something of the like, and thus you’d have different toolsets for it.

  2. Advanced animation table. I guess Synfig’s Animation mode reminds me of 3DsMax’s AutoKey function. Dunno if I’ve missed something (and if I have, please do remind me), but it’d be nice to have an option to toggle “Advanced Animation” or something like that. Each object/group would have its own “animation layer”, and each layer would be subdivided into Rotations, move and scale (and/or all at the same time). This would remove complications in animating. Also, Sublevels of animation could include “Tangent-clip” or “Object-clip”. Hopefully this could also have the ability to import sounds as layers. XDDD

  3. Encapsulate and Export canvas sorta acts like Flash’s Graphics Symbol. Although it’s useful sometimes, it kinda gets annoying when you actually can’t see WHERE the canvas is going to be applied. For example, when I made a scene of a character removing his hat, since the animations were independent it just didn’t fit in well together. Now that it’s actually a good thing that the animations are independent, but it’d be helpful to actually have a faded glimpse of the frames in the parent Canvas similar to Onion Skin/Light Table, and perhaps the timelines could be synced with the parent’s? Or there could be a button for the sync/unsync. XD This would really help in working with special effects too.

  4. Would you guys like to integrate this into Synfig? Vector power, of course, but Synfig can also do wonders with Bitmap. xD
    particlesystems.org/

  5. OH YEAH! I almost forgot! Since some people have been curious, is it possible to have a function in Synfig to export animations in SWF/FLA using Sorenson technology?

P.S.: I’m makin a whole movie on Synfig. Part of fanfiction, yet mostly for my portfolio/dmeo reel.

  1. FBF animation is possible now just by setting the amount of the object to zero when you want not visible and to >0 when you want it to not visible. Maybe an option to toggle the displaying of the layers with amount = 0 in the layer list would help? I don’t know if it is easy but I’m sure that it is possible. Also a quick way to set the amount from 0 to 1 and viceversa would help on that task. And also, one mode that automatically sets the amount to 1 when you draw a object at any frame and to be 0 to any frame before the drawing frame, with a constant interpolation waypoint, can help too.

  2. That’s a huge concept change. It is not in line with current synfig workflow. Dunno if it can be done.

  3. Child canvases timeline sync was enabled in the past. But afaik there where recursive problems that obligated to disable it. Please specify more accurately what do you mean with this item.

  4. Cool. It can be interesting to study and read.

  5. Is Sorenson technology opensource? Which is its license?

It is currently possible to animate canvases. For example, create two exported canvas [a] and [b] and swap between them in your animation. Synfig core can handle the exact same functionality, only without exporting. Would it be worthwhile to add basic support in studio?

Some cons are:
a) Massive filesize bloat if you’re only changing 1 out of the many layers in a canvas
b) Contrary to design, frame-by-frame animation wouldn’t be made in animation mode

  1. I don’t understand what tangent clip and object clip are. Otherwise, the feature request is not unreasonable. I’ll look into some of the transformation layers to see if they can be combined.

  2. I don’t see how this a problem with encapsulated (not exported) canvases.

@Genete: 1) LOL I guess that helps. XDDD Thanks. Although I meant a simplified and quick procedure; hmm not much priority yet I reckon. Perhaps it could be implemented by version 1.5

  1. That is? O_O Hmm, how about this? Simply the way Synfig handles it, but each object has its own layer of animation and not unified like it is currently?

  2. Hmm, I mean sort of like a light table, or sort. For instance, IF the “separate layer of animation” isn’t possible (or we could use both anyway), the child canvas could act similar to Flash’s Graphic symbol (that is, animate and/or loop within the symbol, the timeline is synced with the parent and we can see a faded outline of the parent animation at the back so we can animate the Graphic symbol more accurately). If so, it’ll give it a +1 for animation VFX compositing. :laughing:

  3. Hmm, nevermind. I rechecked Sorenson and it’s a proprietary codec. But what I meant was basically export the vectors, lights, etc. as SWF of Flash. The only problem would be the effects in Synfig, such as Noise and sort, which could be rendered as Bitmap then converted to vector again. Vectors actually preserve filesize compared to Bitmaps (I’m working on 1280 x 786 PNGs with 20fps and they’re HUGE!) and could also help with lipsync accurately once the sound module is implemented.

@nikitakit: 1) Hmm I’m not sure if Synfig can handle multiple layers of keyframes (i.e., some keyframes that should NOT be applied to all objects, just one or two) without exporting. If it can, please let me know how. But this was what I meant. Although exporting canvases definitely help cheating FBF it still isn’t accurate enough when you don’t know WHERE you’re drawing. :laughing:

  1. What I mean by tangent clip and object clip is…
    a) Tangent Clip: Could be named anything, really. What I mean is layer (loop or non-loop) specially for a tangent. Perhaps similar to Frame 1,2,3,1,2,3 in X-Sheet or a Movie Clip in Flash.
    b) Object Clip: Similar to Tangent CLip but applied to an object as whole.