Synfig Project Forum

Hi, I'm new to synfig and I'm having a bit of trouble at the moment figuring out time loops.

What I'd like to know if it's possible - is how do you get animation before and after the time loop?

For example - if you wanted a circle to go across a screen for a while then loop a bit and then continue, what would you do in terms of settings in the time loop filter?

I have seen there's a way to break the loop but I honestly don't understand what the documentation means - is there an example of this on a file anywhere?

First though, I was mostly trying to figure out how to loop within an animation - the pre-loop movement seems to be impossible.

Thank you for your help.

Time loop layer is quite difficult to understand and possibly it may have bugs.
In any case I'll try to do a tutorial with your simple request to throw some light on this.
Meanwhile, can you please create the desired looped animation by hand to help me on the tutorial using time loop layer?
-G

_________________
Synfig needs your help!
Developers, packagers, bug testers, translators, artists, web developers, wiki writers... you can contribute!

Here is a video demonstrating the usage of the Time Loop layer.
http://youtu.be/zs8s9FTXumc
Attached is the sample file.

Explanation:

1) Don't animate Time Loop layer parameters using other interpolation than Constant. Otherwise your brain might explode
2) To not loop, set Duration to be a high time value. I've used EOT that means End Of Time.
3) When you want the loop to start then modify Duration to the loop duration using constant interpolation. In my example it happens at time t=1s and Duration is set to 1s.
4) When the loop starts, the Link time should be the same than the current time to match the start of loop with the current time and not have jumps.
5) Once you have finished the loops (say two seconds past, so in my case it is a t= 4s) you have to restore the Duration value to EOT again (what means no duration). Use Constant interpolation.
6) Also the Link time has to be set to the same looping amount of time but negative (in my case two seconds but negative). This allows to continue the animation normally.

It is possible to make more fancy things with Time Loop layer but it is very easy to get crazy.

I hope it helped.

-G

_________________
Synfig needs your help!
Developers, packagers, bug testers, translators, artists, web developers, wiki writers... you can contribute!

Hello Ganete!

Thank you very much for the youtube example and the file.

I downloaded the attachment at home but I couldn't open it in synfig. I'm trying now at the local library and will see if that one opens any better. I don't trust my computer at home - I have a slow connection so incase this is the problem. . .

What you have done on the youtube video is just what I was wondering about - although I do think I might be getting into crazy territory with my ideas -

What I had is a person sitting at a table, they begin to eat and continue to eat when fly flies by - they don't react to the fly - just eat - it was the eating I wanted to loop because I thought it would be a lot of work to copy the sequence again and again. But then I had this little second or two at the beginning with them just sitting there.

Anyway, I'll take a look at your file or let you know what the error message is that i get at home if it keeps coming up.

I will try to duplicate what you did on the youtube example too just for practice!

Thank you, too for the warning about my head exploding!

Hi again

I downloaded the sifz file from another computer but I still received the following message when attempting to open it up with synfig -

Unable to load "C:\DOCUME~1\User\LOCALS~1\Temp\simple-loop.sifz":

* C:\Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Temp\simple-loop.sifz:<waypoint>:48: error: "clamped" not a valid value for attribute "before" in <waypoint>
* C:\Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Temp\simple-loop.sifz:<waypoint>:48: error: "clamped" not a valid value for attribute "before" in <waypoint>
* C:\Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Temp\simple-loop.sifz:<waypoint>:54: error: "clamped" not a valid value for attribute "before" in <waypoint>
* C:\Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Temp\simple-loop.sifz:<waypoint>:54: error: "clamped" not a valid value for attribute "before" in <waypoint>
* C:\Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Temp\simple-loop.sifz:<waypoint>:174: error: "clamped" not a valid value for attribute "before" in <waypoint>
* C:\Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Temp\simple-loop.sifz:<waypoint>:174: error: "clamped" not a valid value for attribute "before" in <waypoint>
* C:\Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Temp\simple-loop.sifz:<waypoint>:180: error: "clamped" not a valid value for attribute "before" in <waypoint>
* C:\Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Temp\simple-loop.sifz:<waypoint>:180: error: "clamped" not a valid value for attribute "before" in <waypoint>

Would there be a way to fix this? I would love to see what codes you put down to create the video. It is exactly one of the things I wanted to do.

Thank you!

You need to install Synfig Studio 0.63.05. Please get it from our download page.
-G

_________________
Synfig needs your help!
Developers, packagers, bug testers, translators, artists, web developers, wiki writers... you can contribute!

Hi there,

I’ve just been able to get back to my animation project – I had a pretty busy summer –

I downloaded the updated version of Synfig and I just wanted to check how it will install.

Will it install over the old version?

Should I save the files I created on the older version somewhere else so they don’t get overwritten? And will these older files be compatible with the newer version?

Thank you.

When you start the install, it will detect that an older version is already installed, and prompt you to remove it before installing the new version. You should be able to accept the default values.

Chris