Please!, wait a little until nikitakit makes a review of it. Maybe he removes/adds some phrases or change them.
Thanks!
-G
No problemo, I’ll wait for Nikitakit’s review then.
Awesome release! 
Gonna try em pronto. Hope that bug’s fixed.
LOL I wish Synfig could somehow also import .pal along with its custom .spal.
the win download link is changed to 0.62.02.exe too.
btw, is the release note ready to translate into other languages?
Thanks jcome for the link modification.
I asked for a native English review before any translation. In any case if during translation that review is done as well, it is ok. Any suggestion/comment to improve the Press Release is welcome.
-G
English language EDIT of Press Release
Please note: I am, as always, most impressed with peoples’ command of the English language - especially as my own skills in other languages are very poor. The EDITs I have made here are intended to make the information a little clearer for English users and for users that may be new to Synfig and don’t yet understand some of the references. I have also changed the word “users” in some instances for the word “animators”.
The Synfig Team is proud to announce the release of the latest version of Synfig 0.62.02.
This is a small update that includes some important bug fixes and some minor features. We
recommend that you visit the Synfig download area to install and enjoy this new version so that
all members of the Synfig community are working with the latest release. We still need you to
continue reporting bugs and asking for new features so we can make Synfig even better!
The main features and changes are listed below. Please see the Release Notes and the NEWS files in
the source code for more information about the changes that have occurred.
Smart Linking of Tangents
The ability to “sew” or join shapes together is an important technique when creating artwork.
(Here is a tutorial on the technique.) Previously, shapes had to be created in a specific way in
order to allow sewing or it would result in twisted tangents. Furthermore, it was impossible to
properly combine three shapes at a single point. The smart linking of tangents feature solves this
problem. There is also a new “Link Opposite” option that simulates the old behavior.
This is a video of the new feature in action. It was taken during the development stage and
differs slightly from the current version: “Smart Link” has since become the default link behavior
and, since users no longer need to worry about tangent colors, all tangent ducks are now yellow.
New Blend Method: By Layer Default.
Toolbox for 0.62.02
Members of the Synfig community reported that it can be annoying to need to change the blend
method of some layers before they will work as expected. For example, a Shade layer would
have its blend method automatically set to “Composite”, the most common blend method for Geometry
layers. However, it is typical when creating shadows to give this layer the “Behind” blend method.
That meant that when the animator needed to add a Shade layer, it was necessary to change the
default blend method twice (once before creating the shade layer and then changing back the
default back to “Composite” before continuing to animate).
The “By Layer Default” option allows the user to get the default blend method for each type of layer
as it is defined by the layer itself. So now, adding a Shade layer with the “By Layer
Default” blend method selected creates the layer with the blend method set to Behind as expected.
Blur, Radial Blur, Noise Distort Half Tone 2, Half Tone 3 and Luma Key layers have had their
default blend methods changed to Straight. The Bevel layer has changed to the Onto blend method and the Shade layer has changed to Behind.
An incorrect blend method can be especially annoying when using the Blur layer and, in some cases, the bigger the
blur size you set, the less of a blur effect you got. This was because the default blend method for most
layers (Composite) doesn’t work well for the Blur layer. See this forum thread about this issue which is the main reason we added this new feature.
Avoid accidentally animating some parameters
Many Synfig animators have suggested that certain parameters almost never need to be animated and one of these parameters is the blend
method. It was a common to accidentally modify the blend method whilst in animation mode, creating a
waypoint and causing the layer to switch its appearance halfway through the animation. To avoid
this, the user had to exit the animation mode, modify a value that didn’t need to be
animated, and then return to animation mode. In this release we have introduced the option of
making a layer parameters or constant value node “Static”, making them immune from accidental animation.
To use the new functionality just right click on a parameter and select “Forbid Animation” from
the contextual menu. The string “(Static)” will appear close to the type name of the parameter.
To restore it as a normal parameter right click again over it and select “Allow Animation”.
Some layer parameters are now set to “Static” by default when the layer is created. For example.
the “Children Lock” parameter of new Paste Canvas layers cannot be animated unless its default
“Static” status is turned off.
New Stroboscope Layer
This is a simple new layer that has been included in the “Others” section. The stroboscope layer
shows the layers under it at regular intervals and then freezes them for the remainder of the
interval interval. It is similar to decreasing the frame rate of an animation while preserving its
length. It has a single parameter called “Frequency” (in times per second), which determines how
often samples are taken. Setting the frequency to exactly match the frames per second your project is set will have
no affect on your animation, whilst setting a smaller frequency will make it appear as if you had lowered the frame rate
to that amount.
New icons set and new splash screen for development snapshots
We are lucky to have a new guy working on artwork for Synfig: Yu Chen (jcome). He has done a lot
of work to bring us a new set of icon files, as well as reorganizing the naming scheme for the
source images and grouping them by color style. Panels and all of the Layers now have new icons,
and a number of the other icons from past releases have been reworked to fit with the new style.
Let’s look at them:
New Layer icon set Layers icons 1 of 4 Layers icons 2 of 4 Layers icons 3 of 4 Layers
icons 4 of 4
Also the panels icons have been changed:
Panels icons
and some other icons have been reworked:
Default Layer icon Add to Group action icon Remove from group action icon Encapsulate action icon
Show grid icon Snap to grid icon
Angle type icon blinepoint type icon Boolean type icon Canvas type icon Color type icon Integer
type icon
List type icon Real type icon Segment type icon Time type icon Vector type iconValue node icon
Konstatin Dmitriev has included the code and artwork for a new splash screen for development
snapshots:
Snapshot splash screen
Miscellaneous changes
New Simplified Chinese and British English translations, Palettes can now be saved and loaded
using a Synfig-specific pallete format (.spal), some bugs were fixed, …
Enjoy the new release! Proudly yours,
The Synfig Team
Last Updated on Tuesday, 16 November 2010 21:22
Copyright © 2010 Synfig Project. All Rights Reserved.
Joomla! is Free Software released under the GNU/GPL License.
Hi Morn!
Thanks for the review of the Press Release. I’ll update it as soon as possible.
I only miss one section header: “Avoid accidentally animating some parameters” to introduce the “Static” option.
Would it have other header sentence or was that just a missed phrase to review?
-G
It was there (just edited my post to correct) but I’d removed a paragraph spacing by mistake so it was right up against the previous paragraph - sorry.
Hi Genete,
I didn’t know were to put this, but there are some mistakes in the blurb for the installer (.deb file at least, and possibly in the RPM too?), they are in bold in the text below:
Film-Quality 2D Vector Animation package
Synfig Animation Studio is a powerful, industrial-strength vector-based 2D animation software, designed from the ground-up
for producing feature-film quality animation with fewer people and resources. It is designed to be capable of producing feature-film quality animation.
It eliminates the need for tweening, preventing the need to hand-draw each frame. Synfig features spatial and temporal resolution independence (
sharp and smoothat any resolution or framerate), high dynamic range images, and a flexible plugin system.
(Converted from a rpm package by alien version 8.64.)
The sentence highlighted is basically a repeat of the information in the previous sentence, and the word highlighted looks like a typo. I hope you can get this fixed for the next release 
Zenoscope
Thanks for point it out zenoscope.
The text is part of the building script and will be fixed in next release.
-G
Applied on the next release.
-G