Feature for creating precomp and using it in Synfig is great but it has some issues and I did figure out some workarounds too.
The problem is with Time Offset
Normally, I expected that when we put an offset of 10f all the keyframes of that canvas/group should move 10f ahead, but Synfig moves it backward. So the workaround is simple just put -10f and it will move it 10 frames forward. This is not an issue at all but I do think that offset should move it in forward time.
Another issue is also related to Time offset.
When nested precomp/canvas, time offset stops working.
For example, I have some animation in file comp1.sifz,
then I import that into âcomp2.sifzâ and so on till comp5.sifz. Now, let âcomp5.sifzâ have 2 âcomp4.sifzâ, so when I change the time offset of one of the âcomp4.sifzâ nothing occurs. But if I disable one of the 2 âcomp4.sifzâ and the time offset of the other is set to for example 10f then it will work. Initially, I thought that this was a problem with the preview. I tried to render the frame but it doesnât do anything different.
So a workaround for this is every time you import a file more than once create a new directory and copy all the files below that level for example you want âcomp4.sifzâ twice in your âcomp5.sifzâ. The copy âcomp4.sifzâ with all its inner child precomps i.e. comp1, comp2, comp3. Into a separate folder and then import them into âcomp5.sifzâ. By doing this the time offset will work, but this completely dismisses the use of precomps in the first place. So for example I need to edit some small animation in âcomp1.sifzâ. I have to go to all comp1 in all folder to achieve that.
(Also I have tried making comp1 common and then have comp2, comp3, comp4 into different directory but somehow the renderer detects them as same thing and in fact they are same thing, and the time offset doesnât work )
Take a look at the file from
Everything works fine in that example.
Here is the time offset doesnât work, open comp5 and try disable a layer and changing the offset.
CompMagic (TimeOffset).zip (12.6 KB)