…well, almost. Still need to find a good Lipsyncer for Ubuntu, or at least some sound support. @_@
Anywhos, I got good news (for you) and bad news (for me).
Good news: Linux users can now FBF animate (almost properly) to their heart’s content! 
Thanks to two GIMP scripts and one tutorial.
Bad news: … I don’t have a tablet to go with it. 
As a matter of fact, I talked to a colleague of mine today about the possibility of building an open source AIR app for lip sync. We talked about whether it would be faster to a) build one from scratch as an AIR app using ActionScript 3 (which we both know and use everyday at work) or b) learn Java (which AS3 strongly resembles) well enough to fix what ever is wrong with JLipSync. We didn’t reach a conclusion yet, but wheels are turning.
Matt
Neato! I think it’d actually be awesome if you guys could use python, which would in turn give crossplatform stability compared to Java. And I thought Adobe axed Air support for Linux?
I was hoping to learn Python 3 if only to build some in-house tools to work with. @_@
Hmmm… I guess my nose was too much to the grindstone to catch the news earlier this summer that Adobe was dropping AIR support for Linux. That throws a monkey wrench into the works for me. I’d love to do the whole thing in Python, but I’m not sure I have the time in the near future to learn Python well enough to build an app like this from scratch. That would have been the AIR advantage: getting to use skills I already use everyday at work.
Matt
Yeah, I still prefer Pencil to work out frame-by-frame stuff myself.
I’ve filed a bug report for JLipSync. I want to see what happens there before deciding whether to try to do anything for lipsync myself.
Matt
@Zelgadis: I have, and use it often. Problem is that it’s only tablet friendly, and its sound layer doesn’t work. Currently I can’t afford a tablet; GIMP has the Pen Tool, which may not be up to par with Retas / Sai’s curve tool, but does the job.
@muhkayoh: I feel your pain. I’m not even a programmer and I still feel the need to learn it. Thankfully, Python should be easier than C.
But I think HTML 5 / Javascript should be easier, and one can build lipsyncing webapps with it. From what I’ve seen people do with this new innovation, Lipsyncing should be a piece of cake.
Well…
With this workflow you don’t have an x-sheet, or timeline, while animating. Also Monkeyjam is windows only (I’m almost sure, site is down now so I can’t check) so this is no linux workflow anyhow.
You know there is a Gimp animation Plugin?, Gimp GAP, which lets you animate frame by frame in Gimp, has a preview player and an x-sheet among other features. It may have a little high threshold to begin with but I think much of that is because of a lack of good get-started tutorials and documentation.
XDDD I don’t need MonkeyMagic; there are plenty of Linux tools that work better (Blender, etc.). I know, I did mention we don’t have sound support. And I still need to find a decent set of tutorials for GAP, but so for it’s been unstable for me.
I’m hoping to learn Python so I can make a storyboard/simple-animation tool with sound support (much like a simplified ToonBoom Storyboard). Problem is that an artist like me isn’t cut out to learn programming (and I have dyslexic symptoms), but I still try.
PS: GAP has an X-Sheet?! O_O What?!
Ooops. No it doesn’t. It was a while since I used it, and I haven’t used it much either so I remembered wrong. Sorry.
I FINALLY LEARNED HOW TO SHAPE KEY IN BLENDER!
Now I can lipsync to my heart’s content! It’s inaccurate as hell, but it does the job.