wishing on synfig

*hello
*i am absolute beginner to synfig,well i should say i am absolute beginner to most softwares i have installed on my pc
*i am 51
*i am not in design or any other graphic field,simply when i was younger i used to be good at drawing
*i live in Africa and this is why i am a great fan of software libre and oss:

  • i use both ubuntu and mandriva as os,other favourite apps are:blender,gimp,inkscape and audacity and while looking for free 2d animation apps i bumped into synfig and ktoon but chosen synfig although i don’t really know where and how to start with it…
    *anyway i have few questions about what can synfig do :
  • can it draw patterns along path…like inkscape for instance
  • can it save drawing as animation…
  • can particles follow a path
  • can it simulate plants and flowers growth like we so often see it on tv today
  • can we make transformations like scale,rotation and translation the way we do it with 3d apps
  • can we do all these transformations simply by typing figures somewhere instead of doing it with dragging mouse for instance…
  • can we use synfig canevas the way we use blender views
    *these are few of the questions i was wanting to ask about synfig and thanks a lot in advance for any reply

yes. It requires some workarounds, but yes.

Of course. That’s Synfig for!

Particles still being an experimenting feature but yes, they can follow a path.

Yes, but it is also it needs some effort.

Yes, but in 2D.

Not sure what do you mean.

Not sure here either.
*these are few of the questions i was wanting to ask about synfig and thanks a lot in advance for any reply
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Please detail more your questions. Post examples.
Welcome!
-G

Yes. Most transformations are done by adding a layer and then setting the values (distance to move, angle of rotation, etc.) Synfig is unique in that these transformations do not actually modify the original shape, but rather give instructions of how to alter it before rendering to the screen.

  • so i guess according to your answers that first thing first is to read carefully everything about layers in synfig doc

The tutorials (written and screencasts) are quite useful…

G.