Road Map discussion

General Synfig general discussion
1

Please write down your TOP TEN features you want synfig to have in the future. Please be realistic and practical. Also please insert the link to the top ten nasty/need to fix bugs that there are in the bugs tracker. If you have found other bug(s) please post them here and of course in the tracker of sourceforge.
See synfig.org/Bugs
See synfig.org/Wish_list.

If you only stay with less than ten it would be good.

I’ll think on this and post my top ten list soon.

Cheers!!

2
  • Akagogo’s SVG importer
  • Akhil’s greenscreen layer
  • Sound
  • Some native way of using ffmpeg rather than using it hard-coded for just mpeg. (e.g. the ability to pass commandline parameters to ffmpeg, and without using ffmpeg stand alone)
3

A really simple feature that I’ve come to miss: the frame forward and frame backward navigation buttons. Or do they exist, and have I not found them yet? Particularly when trying to select the first or last frame. So, come to think of it, add the first frame and last frame navigation buttons as well. :slight_smile:

And I totally agree with pixelgeek’s points…

G.

4

New features / missing features

  • Bones.
  • Sound support. Sound Layer
  • Native SVG import.
  • Keyframe dragging / display in time ruler.
  • Be able to unexport canvases.
  • Improve ffmpeg settings
  • Smart linking of tangents
  • Rearrange the view of waypoints for Canvas parameter
  • Improved Color Dialog (color wheel)
  • Allow select the origin of rotation when using the Rotate Tool

Bugs / need fixing

  • Groups
  • Meta Data
  • Save/Load palette.
  • Text layer fonts/styles.
  • Save/Load Device settings (linux)
  • Distorted text and radial blur has artifacts.
  • Fix any crasher bug
  • Fix the rest of the 93 bugs opened.

Bugs and features not sorted.

5

Gerco: They already exists (shortcuts): synfig.org/Keyboard_Shortcuts
Anyway have them in buttons would be good too. In time line and in the main window (like cinelerra)
-G

6

Features (many unrealistic):

  • Parameters for output targets (enables possibility of 48/64-bit colour for PNG, different codecs for ffmpeg /libav and more)
  • Integration of the SVG importer into synfig proper, SWF import with libming
  • Switch UI to using GtkBuilder (requires GTK+ 2.12)
  • Merging the 2 Windows installers
  • Relocatability and portableapps.com support (moving install dir around should work)
  • MacOS X maintainer or MacOS hardware -> dooglus
  • Kill fmod, replace with gstreamermm or something from the Khronos Group like OpenMAX
  • gstreamer input/output
  • fix video and stream importing
  • an ILoveSketch-style mode for the sketch tool
  • git, svn, bzr support in synfigstudio
  • collaboration features

Bugs:

Not really sure, will leave this to others.

7

Ok, here’s my list. Ordered by priorities (top priority go first).

Synfig Studio - Most Wanted features:

  • Keyframe dragging / display in time ruler. Increases usability for new and experienced users.
  • Smart linking of tangents Increases usability for new and experienced users.
  • Width weigths. Would heavily decrease complexity of compositions with heavy use of lines with variable width. That’s making those composition more simple to animate. Improving the workflow.
  • Represent convert sequence by a string. This feature will make possible to easy copy convert sequences from one parameter to another.
  • Non scalable timeline. Improves user experience - it’s easier to direct waypoints in time, when size of a single frame is constant.
  • Template library. A library of templates is helpful for new users to study the program. That task assumes two development directions: Implementing loading templates feature in Synfig Studio (developers) and Accumulating templates library (community).
  • Animated sketch. Currently it could be achieved by using other software, but integration with synfig is poor, cause it requires importing a movie through a sequence of images. This is not intuitive and not obvious for new users. It will be good if synfig will have it implemented like blender’s Grease Pencil. This feature will improve workflow, make synfig usable for frame-by frame animation (it is intuitive way of learning animation and powerful tool for producing preproduction work like animatic).
  • Single-window UI. Improves experience for new users. See entries: [ 1687557 ] make everything dockable?, http://synfig.org/Wish_list#Dockable_windows and [ 1401371 ] single window.
  • Speedup. Ugh. I know, that’s a pain. But… maybe? maybe? At least real time preview with a low quality? In wireframe mode? Lack of real time feedback makes synfig more difficult to learn for users new to animation.
  • Layer Convert. Better user experience for new users and little speedup of the workflow.

Synfig Studio most annoying bugs:

Also I suggesting to add third section to final roadmap - “code”. Cause some things don’t look like a features, but still important to do. Maybe even add a fourth section for administration things - web site/packaging/etc.

8

Not a real bug (maybe) nor a proper feature request, but I still think this is important enough:

  • Making the Canvas Properties Dialog understandable or at least publish a real specification here.
9

Ok, so here are mine, mostly related to “drawing” with synfig, than animation (with one exception).

  • SVG importer (and maybe exporter)
  • Bones
  • Non-symetrical smooth ducks
  • More ways to choose colors (Hue/Saturation/Value, Color wheel, …)
  • Boolean operations on blines (have several layers merged into one)

[size=85]It lacks one item, but it’s rather unrealistic ATM, mainly because I have problem describing it :smiley:. (Basically, it boils down to “make the creation of borders for regions, regions for borders, gradients for region or border, as easy as in Inkscape, but keep separated layers for all.” I’m still trying to figure out the UI for that one :wink: )[/size]

10

I thought of some more (but maybe they are also there already :slight_smile:).

  • Create a region layer from an existing outline layer.
  • Create an outline layer from an existing region layer.
  • Create an outline and/or region layer from an existing circle layer.
  • Create an outline and/or region layer from an existing rectangle layer.
  • Create an outline and/or region layer from an existing polygon layer.
  • Etc.

G.

11

Ooooh - I’ll second Gerco’s ideas.
Specifically a way to add a region based on an existing set of outlines. (i.e. a region fill for a non-existent region)

Chris

12

There is a way to do these already, just make a new layer (outline or region) and link the vertices parameters for the layers together. Not exactly the most intuitive way, but it is possible.

13

Sure, but it gets tedious the more vertices you have…

I was thinking more along the lines of a single click… A menu entry or button or something…

Like in Inkscape where you can go from an object to a path.

G.

PS: When it comes to inspiration, Inkscape is probably a good source.

14

Uh, you don’t need to link each duck manually, you just link the vertices parameter so that each of the layers references the exact same set of vertices.

I agree it could use a button or something to make it easier.

15

Coool!

I guess I mostly need documentation! :laughing:

G.

16

But what if the region defined does not have vertices at each corner? say I have three lines that intersect to make a triangle… Where the lines cross, you’d have to make new vertices, then use those new vertices as the basis of a triangular region.

17

pixelgeek, that would imply to be able to select segments that is not available for the moment. It would be tricky to figure what’s the region you want to fill because the tool would take in consideration what’s in/out or left/right of a bline.
Nice to imagine it working, difficult to do in real world anyway.
But hey! feature! :slight_smile:
-G

18

My features list:

  • SVG import
  • Complete Manual / Documentation project (something in the same direction that docs.gimp.org/)
  • Boolean operations on blines
  • Keyframe dragging
  • Font selector window

Bugs:

  • Hex Color
19

I just completed and committed video import to SVN yesterday (was on my roadmap, isn’t perfect but works).

Who else will be working on their roadmap, or working on other folks’ roadmaps/wishlists?

20

I am new to the program, but some of mine are:

Sketch Animation - like Pencil would be very helpful to add small things in some frames and increase Synfig’s usefulness and appeal for all types of animation.

Render Time Approximation - this was a problem for gif mostly(and avi I am sure), but I have found PNG composite is a much better option. I usually just keep the destination folder and hit refresh when I want to check on it.

AVI backgrounds - this would be a nice way to add things to scenes you have already rendered and do not want to edit the source file for. Also, rather interesting for Roger Rabbit type effects.

Particle Tool/Particle Object editor - I also thought it might be interesting to add a Particle tool that is intuitive. Genete’s script is amazing and I am sure i will do alot of things with it once I have a chance to sit down and figure it out, but if there were a way to make it into tool with all the settings on sliders, it would be much easier. His script adds endless possibilities of nice effects to make animations look better. I will register and add it to the wiki page sometime.

As I become more familiar with the program, I will come back here. :slight_smile:

Thanks for everything. I love it so far!