Interesting enough is that the output is of the highest quality. It may not yet live up the other animation applications like Maya or 3D Studio Max but it sure is able to get the job done in a relatively short amount of time.
The Synfig vector-based open-source 2D animation software package is a must have for any graphic animation artists on a tight budget.
However, for those aspiring graphic artists that are new to this type of graphic software I would recommend a few hours reading through the documentation manuals and getting yourselves familiar with the relevant shortcuts and terminology. They have been kept pretty much to the standards compared to other similar applications out there.
Ease of Use (3 out of 5)ĭepending on your background in the 2D graphics field, you will find that this application needs no real effort in getting to learn how to use the tools and keyboard short cuts. All in all Synfig is remarkably responsive to user actions. All the available tools respond quickly to inputs and events and that includes rendering and simulations, which may also slow down depending on the complexity of the artwork used in the frames. It is quite stable and fast and easy to use. Synfig 2D animation application has a relatively small memory footprint and that is good news for any piece of hardware.
Most of these features would normally be highly manual but Synfig automates them. Shading is simulated internally on a frame by frame basis in Synfig. Render options with Synfig include BMP, MPG, DV, JPEG, OPEN-EXR, PNG, LIBAV and ImageMagick. You can also perform morphing and cut outs with Synfig. There is also reuse of animations, Bline following among other algorithms that facilitate the animation process. It has an arsenal of drawing tools including color editors, Bline tools, region layers, draw tools, gradient tools, masking and outline tools that give artist the best they can ever have in computer drawing.Īnimation with Synfig uses keyframes, time track Panels and Waypoints. Synfig is capable of importing GIMP and SVG vector images. It uses spatial and temporal resolution independence, which means that like other vector programs the images are always sharp even when resized and the the animations remain smooth at any framerate.
Synfig supports animating frames without having the artist draw each frame.
Synfig which is developed in C++ is capable of running on cross platform mainly on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. The aim of Synfig’s developers was to produce an application which was capable of creating feature-film quality animation with fewer people and resources. It was released back in 2005 as open source. Synfig is a powerful vector-based open-source 2D animation software package developed primarily by Robert Quattlebaum and used at Voria Studios, which no longer exists.