Newbie coming from Anime Studio

Hi friends of animation,

I’m an American expat who’s lived in Berlin since 1972. I just retired but still teach English on a voluntary basis. One of the few animation projects I ever finished was this grammar quiz game http://paths2english.eu/constructexport2/index.html. The artwork was done by 5th graders. I created cutouts and did the animations in Anime Studio, the quiz game was done in the free version of Construct 2.

Animation videos featuring my songs are another area of interest, I only completed one, the ideas aren’t bad but much of the animation is a bit embarrassing to me now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTvwDr4cnb0

Why Synfig when I have Anime Studio? Recently they raised the price of upgrades beyond my budget. And although it’s a powerful software, I’ve always had some problems with editing rigs and animations that went haywire somewhere. Once it goes wrong it stays wrong. How many non-expert users get everything right the first time? My first impression is that Synfig offers a lot of control over every part of the animation.

I’m working on the fable “The Lion and the Mouse”, a project with two characters should be doable. There are lots of versions on YouTube, some well-animated, but the language is 1) unpoetic and 2) not suitable for language learners. Right now I’m doing a tutorial or two a day with the goal of resuming work on this tale in Synfig.

I appreciate the (generally) good tutorials and the hard work put into developing this program. Hopefully someday I’ll learn enough to help struggling newbies in this forum.

Hi!
And welcome to the forum. Most of the animation you did in the construct 2 program and in your music video can be done in Synfig. Enjoy digging into the wiki and don’t be shy to ask something when you get stuck.
Greetz!

Thanks, Darkspace. I’m surprised you took the time to look at my examples. I bought the introductory course, the tutorials are really well put together, good for a flying start in Synfig. Pay what you like is fair enough. I’m looking forward to being part of this learning community. - Steve

Hi exile!. I also did some animations with Anime Studio, but without any previous knowledge. I made one in 2012 for a friend who composed a music (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC1z9Xcjrr4). After, another for a very special gift for a friend … But I did not follow with animation. And now I really want to learn animation, especially with characters, and despite having Anime Studio PRO 9, I decided to learn Synfig Studio because I like Open Source and this project and want to support and contribute. At the moment I am reporting bugs and suggestions to step I learn with the manual, I am translating strings to my language (Spanish) and I have also made a donation (not much, but for now is what I can afford).

I also like Synfig because that you can play with many parameters :slight_smile:

I also wish in the future to contribute here with my knowledge of Synfig and animation in general.

A greeting and welcome!

P.S. My YouTube channel with my animations: (I hope soon to make similar in Synfig Studio, and better!!!)

https://www.youtube.com/user/MiguelLCasellas/videos

Saludos Miguel! I liked the art work in your animations. At the moment I am trying to learn a new way of working, closer to frame by frame but assisted by auto-tweening between key poses. I think you can do this in Synfig and Anime Studio (point animation) but at this time I’m exploring Open Toonz, also an open source project so I hope it’s all right to mention it here.I still have a lot of testing to do. Good luck with your projects and thanks for sharing.
Steve

exile, I guess no problem in talking about other tools here :slight_smile: Maybe you already know Krita, digital drawing tool also allows animation:

https://krita.org/es/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODhajMFR808

Goo success with your projects too! :wink:

exile, Thank you!! I´m glad you like it my artwork :slight_smile:

Thanks for your answer, Miguel. I tried Krita but it didn’t like my Intel graphics card. Open Toonz also has good drawing tools (both bitmap and vector) but Synfig has good vector drawing tools, too - so if you have decided to work with Synfig, I say go for it. There is another new 2D option, “Grease Pencil” in Blender. However, the automatic tweening did not work for me, unfortunately. Maybe the developers can sort that out soon. In any case, 2016 has been a good year for new open source 2D animation options.

I am taking a time-out from my projects to test a different way of working, away from bone-based digital puppets. That’s for a personal reason, I’d like to improve my drawing skills.

Now I’m rambling, but I searched the forum for morph animation and found out that is actually a strong point of Synfig. So maybe the long Odyssey will end up back here! (As an Anime Studio user, the first thing I tried was using bones).

I hope to see your first Synfig animation posted here.

  • Steve

That is great, exile, let´s go! :slight_smile:

At the same time I learn Synfig’m also re-learning to draw with pencils (many years ago I was drawing).

I find it essential to learn to draw well for animation. I admire those first animators of Walt Disney, Warner…in those years, begining all. Those people drawing a lot, What work!! O.M.G!! I admire a lot, like those musicians, creating based on experimenting, analogically…

And of course, I´ll publish here my practice animations and projects with Synfig. I have a project that once again features the music of my friend Alec (same of the Hallowen video of my previous link). :slight_smile:

  • Miguel