Gradient static in rendered gif?

Support Synfig related help
1

Hello! I have been trying to learn Synfig Studio, but have come across a rather peculiar and annoying thing. I’m not sure if it’s normal and I haven’t selected the right settings or if it’s simply just a bug. Basically, every time I make a .gif with a gradient in it, the final, rendered result has the gradient giving off some sort of static distortion right around the area where the black starts blending in with the white. I was just wondering what this could be and how I could go about fixing it?

2

Hi WhyHelloDare,
gif image format has some limitations on the number of colours on a single file. Apart of that, native Synfig gif output is not accurate enough so it might produce some render artefacts when animating shapes. You can alternatively use (if available in your version) the Magick++ target when rendering to gif format. It would produce a better optimized gif with less size and better colour approximation.

-G

3

Thanks for the reply! Yes, I thankfully have Ubuntu installed alongside Windows, so I was able to install Synfig on Ubuntu and use the Magick++ target option. While It definitely fixed the static problem I was having, I have now come across a second issue. When I give the noise distort affect to the gradient, it gives off a very odd look. In Synfig itself the noise distort gives it a neat more detailed look, but when I open it up after rendering, it almost seems as if it’s showing where each area transitions to a lighter/darker gray…if that makes any sense. Is this a quality or anti-aliasing issue? Or is it simply a limitation of what Synfig can present at this time? Or am I simply just doing something wrong?

Thanks again :smiley:

4

Please, share the file to take a look.
-G

5

I don’t know which site to use to post it in animated form, but this still shows the issue. I’m trying make something that looks like the game Limbo. It’s not finished yet, but I kinda wanted to use the scene and test what I have learned with animation…if that makes any sense :confused: .

*Edit
Also, I don’t really need this to be in gif format. Whatever is best for animation is what I want :slight_smile: .

6

This forum allows attachments of sifz files.
-G

7

slaps self

Sorry, I should have seen the “Upload attachment” below the message box…Anyways, here it is.
Logfloating.sifz (13.2 KB)

8

I realize now that the image you have posted is a gif file. As I mentioned you in earlier post, gif image files cannot handle more than 256 colors so it is normal to have such gradient bands. Use png or other image format that hasn’t that number of color limitation to produce the smooth distorted you can see on the screen.
-G
Logfloating.png

9

Sorry, but I’m not sure what to do. I just looked at the file you attached, and it wasn’t animated. I also just rendered the file into .png format. It made a whole bunch of pictures, which I’m assuming is each frame. Is this normal? And if so what do I do with the pictures? Sorry to be asking so many questions :confused: .

10

Hi whyHelloDare,

It is normal, Png file can just handle static image. You can import the entire png sequence in to a video editor and then render it to a movie in a format you prefer. You can take a look at blender: wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:M … ncer/Usage

There is alternative way in synfig studio, you can render your animation to a vedio format directly via ffmpeg target, for further information you can have a look at our wiki page or come back here :slight_smile: