November Challenge: A looping background

By popular request (OK - Genete was asking for it)

Along with the walk/run cycle, another thing you tend to notice in cartoons after you watch them for a bit, is the repeating background. Tom and Jerry run down a seemingly endless hallway in their house. Wile E Coyote chases the roadrunner past the same rock formations and cacti for miles.

For an example, see - jimmcneill.com/loopdemo.html

They’re looping backgrounds. Show us your best looping background, created in Synfig!

Any tips on what the best method is to do this? Synfig doesn’t have a camera, which I could scroll from left to right to make the movement, right?

That’s the intention of the challenge!
You have a camera widget here (thanks to Zelgadis for the improvements!)
Also there is a nice Translate layer that can do a single loop and a Time Loop layer that can repeat the loop for ever.
Even just animate the origin of the paste canvas layer that encapsulates all the background in an old style would be fine.
Spread your imagination! :slight_smile:
-G

So, is this what we’re talking about?

youtube.com/watch?v=Yjsu6ycBrvg

Yes, I know, I have to talk to my sketching and drawing instructor about how to draw horses… :laughing:

G.

Gerco,
Yes - that’s a perfect example of what we’re talking about! Great use of multi-plane to add perspective too.

Quite cool!
Very nice example and well executed!
-G

Hello everybody, here’s my test :
fr.youtube.com/watch?v=7NVB7nW_g8A

This is a very interesting challenge…

Another excellent one. It is difficult to beat!
-G

Really Cool!

I particularly like the hazy mountains in the back!

madxav: On YouTube, there seems to be a stray image (a flickering) around 5 seconds.
Is that also in your original? Do you think it a rendering bug?

I might have had a similar thing in a rendering…

G.

Yes Gerco, this must be a rendering bug because i used time loop layers and this disturbing flickering image you noticed isn’t repeated during my clip.

madxav.

maxdav, did you used synfigstudio to render the animation? There is a known bug that would produce glitches in the render if you continue working with synfigstudio meanwhile it is rendering. For long render it is recommended to use synfig command line instead, until this bug is solved.

Yes Genete, i always use synfigstudio.
I didn’t know there was another way to render with synfig… :open_mouth:
I’ll have a try with your “synfig command line solution” Genete…
(Even if i don’t really understand what it means :unamused: :unamused: , but i’m sure i’ll find a tutorial…)

Thank you for the tips.
:wink: madxav

Synfigstudio is the GUI and Synfig is the renderer. Well really synfigstudio lies on libsynfig that is part of synfig package.
Just open a terminal and type: synfig
it would complain about not having any parameter.

Here more help: synfig.org/Synfig_Core_options

-G

Here I go:

es.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf2fpioXpFU

Well it is not a looping background and you can disqualify me on this challenge…
… but I’ve enjoyed a lot doing it! :smiley:
:laughing:

Cool! Close enough!

So, how did you do the exhaust gases of the rocket?

G.

I used the particle template I created. This one is a slight different one from the one posted in the wiki but it works the same.
Unzip this file and open scroll.sfiz. It has all the rest of files linked (I hope it works)
scroll.zip (56.2 KB)
Open the files separately to modify values. You cannot edit them directly from scroll.sifz unless you export it.
Playing around with this produced me some crashes difficult to repeat. You’re warned :slight_smile:.
Ah! the stars are also particles (they never repeat).
-G

Nice work genete!

Nice animation, Genete! :mrgreen:
Very nice work!

-Coolname007

EDIT: I’m an idiot.

It is not blank. The stars are pretty invisible if not shown over a dark background.
The file you need to open is just scroll.sifz. The other are linked to it and can be opened but may not show so much.
The particle template is very complex, don’t try to understand it yet. Better just open the template in the wiki
and play with the exported parameters (child panel) to see the effects on the particles.
Enjoy!
-G