New User with an issue!

How do!

My name is Patrick- I’m pretty new to Synfig - tried it about 5 years ago in an older version but in truth it did my head in. Just started up with Version 1.0.2 and really love it, have managed to create and export some decent little cut out animations so far and the learning curve has been great.

I’m just using a tiny percent of this programs capabilities i’m sure and have decided to stick with this as my default animation package- y’know, commit to it and really learn it. It’s my first animation package - so far I love it - and think it’ just amazing that it’s opensource - I happily made a donation for the package and towards the tutorials and really want to get the most out of Synfig.

However, I’m running into some issues that I’d appreciate some clarification on - Are these bugs? Is it my fault?

Firstly I’m getting a lot of crashes- the projects i’m working on are quite modest I guess- and secoundly, and most worryingly, I will be working on a project, I will save it, go back to it and a pop up warning appears that shows a long list of files ( I can’t read what they are as the warning window isn’t that big - but I think it is showing a list of the cut out PNG’s that are in the project) - the Project will open- the folders will appear - the iconwith all the handles wil appear indicating where the pieces of the project are on the canvas - but that’s it- it’s just a blank canvas. Seems like it’s saved all the transformations, waypoints etc but won’t display the images!

Understandably, this is a bit of an issue.

I run a Medion Laptop- Core i7 - ( for a laptop that means it’s around a 2.8 GB Processor - Quadcore I think) -GeForce GTX 680m GPU- Windows 10 - running Synfig Studio 1.0.2 with exported PNG’s from GIMP. I’m saving my files onto a desktop folder currently as sifz.

Sorry for the long initial post, but I could see this problem really disheartening me- would rather keep using Sybfig, but really need a solution here to keep things moving. Any help is hugely appreciated as what I have made already using Synfig has been really pleasing ( to my eyes anyway:))

All the best

Patrick

Hi and welcome The_Deaner_Breakdown,

1.0.2 is pretty old and a lot of things have been reworked/improved since.
Dev build are a lot faster and visually better (under Windows), you should try it (download.tuxfamily.org/morevna/packages/synfig/)
About your PNG’s, beware the way you import them: they should only use relative path to the project, it is a common issue.

Enjoy !

Hi BobSynfig,

Many thanks for the reply and the recomendation- downloaded a newer version and it’s alot more stable:)

On the subject of importing PNG’s- do the PNG’s I’m importing need to be in the same folder as the project i’m working on?

The way I have it set up right now is a main folder on my desktop- inside this I’ve split it up into Animation scenes ( project files) then I have a sepearte folder for GIMP stuff and a sepearate folder for my finished PNG’s - th PNG’s are then split into other folders for relavant characters, backdrops , props etc. Obviously this set up isn’t optimal but could you clarify- bascically sort of explain to me as if i’m an idiot- on what the best set up would be so I can get in the habit of always setting projects and PNG’s up this way.

I appreciate you may be busy but would be thankful for any further advice or reference point:)

all the best

Patrick