Synfig Project Forum

Hi to everybody!
I'm new to Synfig, and I want to animate a sort of "travel path" (as the one you can see in some movies or documentary to trace on a map the path of a travel): in other words, is it possible to time-animate say a BLine, for example? If not, there is a way to obtain such as effect?

Thanks a lot!

There are a few ways this could be achieved. It would be nice if this could be automatic - make a bline, then have it trace itself out - but I don't think it can be done, at least not yet.
The best-looking that I can think of off the top of my head would be to make a bline outline where you want the path to exist. Then make another bline on top of it, putting one end of the bline at the start, and animating the motion of the other, and setting the blend method to "Straight Onto." It will help to make this bline wider than the bline it's going on to. This way, the line will only appear on your preexisting path bline. If you have a complicated travel path, it'll be more complicated, but that's all I can think of. You could, of course, just animate a single bline where you want it, but it would probably move around in an undesired manner.

With the new upcoming 0.63.00 version it will be a childs play. Just create an Advanced Bline and animate its slidable widthpoints positions.
You can install the latest candidate release here and give a try to the Advanced Outline. If have doubts how to proceed, please come back here.
Doewload here: http://synfig.org/cms/en/download/development
-G

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

Many thanks!
I've downloaded the candidate release you suggested and tried the Advance Outline... but, sorry, I'm not sure how to animate its slidable widthpoints!
Can you give me some hints on how to procede?

Thanks!

-First be sure that you have the widhtpoint position ducks and width ducks visible. Click on the width toggle button.
-Second, the widthpoint position ducks always lies on the bline. Try to click and drag it. It should slide along the bline. In animation mode it will record its position.
-Third, you can do right click on the widthpoint position duck and obtain some contextual menu. You can change its interpolation value between it and its left and right closest widthpoint. That will determine the type of tip you use on the widthpoint. You can do it also by surfing the layer's parameters.
-G

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

Great!
Now I have not so much time to experiment with it, but by now it seems to do exactly what I want!

Thanks again!

hi,
i used synfig some time ago and want to get into it again...
these "line-drawing things" are quit popular, isn't it?
i wonder how this animation has been done: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgSI3Icy ... re=related
i could not find a tutorial about that yet.. any tipps?
thanks!

Have you tried 0.63.00 Advanced Outline?
-G

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