
Synfig Studio – FOSS industrial-strength 2D film-quality animation software - dragonsh
https://github.com/synfig/synfig
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virtualritz
As others said: Synfig has usability, stability & documentation issues.

I suggest having a look at this incredible one-man OSS project instead:
VCG.[1] It's actually two apps. A vector graphics app like
Inkscape/Illustrator/CORELDraw and an animation system.

Pictures (or movies) say more that words.[2]

At the core of the software are some novel algorithms for topology independent
shape interpolation that were developed by it's author, Boris Dalstein. He
published his research at SIGGRAPH 2014.[3]

This guy also needs some help spreading the word. The software is already
usable in production but he has a meager 150USD in donations on Patreon.

[1] [https://www.vgc.io/](https://www.vgc.io/)

[2] [https://www.patreon.com/vgcsoftware](https://www.patreon.com/vgcsoftware)

[3] [https://youtu.be/-XONNPyeb5U](https://youtu.be/-XONNPyeb5U)

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panpanna
> As others said: Synfig has usability, stability & documentation issues.

Thankfully, it's open source. Feel free to open some issues with them and help
improving synfig.

IIRC, synfig started as a school project and has achieved much with minimal
resources.

Edit: nevermind the last part, I was thinking of a completely different tool.

~~~
virtualritz
> Thankfully, it's open source. Feel free to open some issues with them and
> help improving synfig.

Did you bother checking their issue tracker on Github? How many tickets they
have open there on these topics? Some on very basic UX stuff.

Furthermore: Why must I write/fix code or file an issue to be eligible for
being critical of a FOSS software?

Try applying that attitude to other situations in life. E.g. reading a book
with bad style or poor character development or watching a movie that could
benefit from editing improvements. Do you share such findings/opinions with
your friends? What do they reply?

P.S.: I tried using Synfig for a commercial project over a decade ago. I
provided lots of feedback on usability some of which was ignored and some of
which was met with an attitude.

Maybe things changed ... but looking at the issue tracker on Github (sorted by
oldest first) I reserve the benefit of doubting that for now.

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amazing_stories
I really want Synfig to be great. I've used it several times over the past
couple years, but it's extremely difficult to make anything. Unintuitive UI,
sparse documentation, and crashes often. I would add it to the list of
projects I support financially, but I haven't found a good use case for it.

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kanobo
Here's maybe the best example of a Synfig project:
[https://youtu.be/PThy9_RZQ8c](https://youtu.be/PThy9_RZQ8c)

I'm supportive of any FOSS software, but like GIMP the UI doesn't look or feel
right for me personally. I think Blender 2.8+ features/UI for 2d animation is
much more interesting and usable.

~~~
Mathnerd314
There are more recent videos:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecVv2IB7f5k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecVv2IB7f5k)

Here is "Hero" made with Blender, for comparison:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKmSdY56VtY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKmSdY56VtY)

Blender's pseudo-3D has more freedom with camera moves, but the capabilities
look pretty similar otherwise.

~~~
jancsika
Both clips are impressive.

I guess the question is: how powerful/useful are the tweening and "bones"
features of synfig?

I see what look like obvious examples of those features in the demo.

The Genndy Tartakovsky style of the other demo kind of obscures whether those
features are similar in blender.

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froh
How does synfig relate / compare to opentoonz?

[https://opentoonz.github.io/e/](https://opentoonz.github.io/e/)

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oDot
What is the current industry standard equivalent of Synfig? Drawing each frame
individually in Krita-like software?

~~~
open-source-ux
There isn't really an 'industry standard' for 2D animation. Animation
productions will often have a mixture of off-the-shelf software and custom
tools.

Some well-known apps in the 2D animation space:

\- Moho: This has a long history and probably influenced some of the features
in Synfig. Moho lets you rig 2D vector models with 'bones' that will save you
having to animate frame-by-frame (although you can do that too).
[https://my.smithmicro.com/moho-pro.html](https://my.smithmicro.com/moho-
pro.html)

\- Toon Boom: One of the most popular tools in the industry
[https://www.toonboom.com/](https://www.toonboom.com/)

\- TVPaint: Also with a long history and requires a dongle to run (remember
those?!) [https://www.tvpaint.com/](https://www.tvpaint.com/)

All the above apps are aimed at professionals in the industry, and have a
substantial price to match.

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jancsika
How is the onion-skinning UX in Synfig? Like if I just wanted to do some
frame-by-frame animation prototypes?

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amazing_stories
You are better off using Krita or Pencil2D for that kind of work.

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jancsika
which would you suggest between the two?

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reddotX
Krita

