Adobe Offsetting: November 2014
It’s only fitting to donate to Synfig since that’s who I started with last November. Synfig is a powerful vector 2D animation tool that’s made great strides in the past year. They’ve been working on educational tutorials, improvements, and a clearer interface. Dimitry and his team has worked tirelessly to improve and build upon their strong foundation.
A difference a year makes
Bone development
One of the main pushes for 2014 was to make bones a reality. They’ve invested a lot of time and effort refining and adding functionality in how to use and create bones.
Video tutorials
One of the biggest complaints that users have had about Synfig is that it’s hard to get started. There are tons of controls but the documentation is cumbersome and uninviting. Synfig listened to the community and created a series of videos walking users through the cu-out animation process.
Easy video encoding
One of the larger request from users was to make a easy-to-use interface for rendering. Synfig listened and not only worked on the exporting features, but also included an H.264 codec!
Synfig UI improvements
No more getting your tool window lost behind the frame window. Now Synfig has a single-window interface option!
New sound layer
Sound in Synfig is just in its first stages but should prove to be an big area for growth in 2015.
Frame-by-frame animation
Every artist want’s the ability to add frame-by-frame elements in their animation.
Bone Distortion
Added to the bone system is a way to distort/control the object it’s assigned to.
OSX Native
For all of you using Synfig on OSX, now there’s no longer a need for X11. Experience Synfig stand alone on your Mac.
Image optimization
Improved image rendering is great for complex scenes and characters on the stage. “Increasing rendering by 200% in 2014 is just the beginning,” says the development team.
12 successful months
For early 2015, Synfig has announced that it will be finally releasing the 1.0 version of Synfig. For anyone that has followed Synfig for the number of year it’s been around, that’s big news! It’s great to see everything coming together and version 1.0 within grasp so soon. Congratulations to the Synfig team and I look forward to all the new feature lined up!
Additional support
As part of my monthly contribution, I am also a subscribing member of the Blender Cloud with a reoccurring monthly donation. If you are first learning Blender, the site is a wonderful resource of videos for learning modeling and animation techniques. They also have access to all the art and assets from their upcoming open-source animation, The Gooseberry Project.
