I’m new to Synfig, so there may be a quick answer for this, but is there any way to get Synfig to draw (even a draft of) an object you’re editing, while you’re dragging it or one of its handles? At least for low-complexity scenes?
For context, I’m trying to use Synfig to design some iconography for a game I’m developing. The only thing on the canvas is a single Advanced Outline layer, which I’m using to create some artistic swooshes (technical term, that) using curve and width manipulation. It’s really difficult to get the right look, though, because every time I want to change something, I have to find the handle, drag it, and then drop it - at which point, if it doesn’t look right I have to go find the handle again (since snapping may have left it somewhere other than where my mouse cursor currently is) and repeat the process.
All I could find when searching was this 7-year-old topic:
Has there been any progress on this since then? The point that @BobSynfig raises about calculation times doesn’t really apply in my scenario and with modern hardware, and even if it did I’d much rather hold my mouse in place while the render finishes, so that I don’t have to interrupt my flow by wrangling the UI before getting back to the art. Even an option that just renders it if you hold your cursor still during a manipulation would be a massive improvement.
Even better would be an option to hide the handles you’re dragging while you do so (perhaps using a modifier key or shortcut) so that you could see the art without the UI getting in the way, for cases where the handles obscure fine details. Though if Synfig has a GIMP-style “new view on the same canvas” functionality, that’d work just fine, so long as the manipulators weren’t drawn on the second view as well.
I’m trying to understand, but maybe a visual with the explanation will help me. Could you demonstrate the issue via video and then state what you want to achieve, please?
Note how many times I have to release the curve handles to check my work. While I’m dragging them, the only feedback I have is the centerline guide, which doesn’t tell me (for example) how much room there is left in the opening between the two parts of the stroke. It gets even worse when I modify the width handles, since there’s no active feedback at all, and after I let go to check how it looks I have to move my cursor back onto the handle before I can click again, which risks misclicking on a different handle or UI element.
What I would like: for the white swoosh to change shape while I drag the handles around, without me having to release the mouse button.
Now, I’ll be the first to say that I’m not a great artist, and maybe that means Synfig just isn’t the app for me, but it doesn’t seem too outrageous in 2023 to ask my laptop to render a Bezier curve in real-time as I edit it
Ok I understand Thanks for the video and the explanation. Well, here’s my answer to what you are asking: Unfortunately, Synfig doesn’t have real-time rendering. You will have to move points and release to see the results, as you’ve been doing. At least on Windows. I don’t know if it’s the same on linux. This is an issue for me as well. I can’t remember if I complained about this before. It’s been so long that I’ve gotten used to it. lol
Ah well, at least I have an answer Maybe if I manage to get it building in Visual Studio I’ll take a look and see if it can be convinced to be a little more responsive.
Maybe if I manage to get it building in Visual Studio I’ll take a look and see if it can be convinced to be a little more responsive.