Moving Squares; Creating Ellipses

Support Synfig related help
1

Hi all! Synfig newbie here!

Two questions:

First, how do I move squares once I’ve created them? I can move circles and stars by the point in their center, but squares have no point in the center (or anywhere else, it seems).

Second, how do I create ellipses out of circles?

Thanks!

2

Welcome :slight_smile:
About squares, it depends the type of layer you create

  • Rectangle layer: two green dots to animate
  • Rectangle region,
    Rectangle outline,
    Rectangle advanced outline: one green dot, in the center of the workarea
    You can combine them of course.
    The most simple is to create a group and add them inside.
    So, you will have only one green dot for animation.
    Notice you can change the placement/offset of the green dot of a group with Ctrl key :wink:
3

Thank you!

What’s the difference between a layer and region in this case?

Also, how do you create an ellipse?

4

For a Square, the layer is defined by 2 opposite corners while the region is made of 4 vertices you can modify with tangentes.
To create an Ellipse, create a Circle layer you will add in a group.
Then expand Transformation property of the group and play with the parameters (scale and angle mostly).
Groups are a lot important in Synfig’s philosophy :wink:

5

That seems an dramatically over-complex way to create an ellipse. O_o Maybe future versions will make it an easy thing.

6

Hello Shoal and welcome here,

I recommand you to take a look to the step by step tutorial on the first part of synfig wiki documentation … i’m sure you will be able to move a circle or an ellipse quite fast … and then understand the meaning of rectangle, region, outline, , groups and other synfig layers concepts.

have fun!

7

Am new and working through tutorials and documentation. Also had problem with squares, which is partially answered above. For skeletons, the tutorial has you draw a crosshairs, but how does one draw a perfect square and align it to a circle, and how does one draw two straight lines to create the cross hairs? Tried spline for a straight line, but no luck. Most drawing programs allow one to “constrain.” Using a Mac. Thanks for any help, or for pointing to existing answers.

8

Constraining an axis can be achieved by pressing shift while dragging.

9

Thank you, helpful!

Is there a way to constrain the rectangle tool to create perfect squares?

And is there a way to draw a single straight line?

10

Change Rectangle tool option to create region layer, not shape. Rectangle Tool - Synfig Animation Studio

Did you try the spline tool?

11

Thanks very much. Yes, using a grid I can create a near perfect square using the Spline tool to create a region layer. Still, it would be good if the rectangle tool would have a constrain option so one could drag a perfect square. Again, thanks for the reply!

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