New stable version of Synfig Studio is finally here!
This release summarizes the results of our work for last 16 months, since the start of new development cycle in August 2015. Much thanks to everyone who supported our efforts by contributing to crowdfunding campaign, purchasing training course, donating via downloads and providing continuous support through Patreon page! You really made this release happen.
As you can guess from version number, this release delivers some major new features, as well as dozens of bugfixes and improvements. Please check all of them below.
Completely rewritten render engine
The new rendering engine is build with optimization in mind and have advanced task-based architecture. Current version provides significant speedup for bitmap and vector elements, full multithreading and also reduces memory usage.
Lipsync features
Green light for talking characters in your animation! As result of our work on Morevna Episode 3, this version of Synfig got an integration with Papagayo lipsync software.
Other changes
- New layer: Free Time – allows to animate time value (useful for making re-timing, slow-mo effect, etc). Thanks to Ivan Mahonin.
- New converter: Animated File – allows to read waypoints from external files (only PGO files supported right now). Thanks to Ivan Mahonin.
- Completely reworked preferences dialogue. Thanks to Yu Chen (concept), Jerome Blanchi (implementation) and Caryoscelus (fixes).
- Utilize multiple threads when rendering via CLI. Thanks to Ivan Mahonin.
- Time Loop Layer, Free Time Layer and Stroboscope Layer placed into separate “Time” category. Thanks to Caryoscelus.
- Switch Group now displays “ghost” elements for missing switch elements. Thanks to Ivan Mahonin.
- Split and merged tangents now displayed in different way. Thanks to Jerome Blanchi.
- Selecting handle on the workarea now highlights the corresponding parameter in the Parameters Panel. Thanks to Jerome Blanchi.
- Alt+0 used to show/hide all handles. Thanks to Jerome Blanchi.
- Synfig code now compatible with C++11 (see issue #904). Thanks to Jerome Blanchi.
- Tooltips for group transformation widget. Thanks to Jerome Blanchi.
- Fixed behavior of “Insert Item” action for Splines (it should be different from “Insert item & Keep shape” action). Thanks to Ivan Mahonin.
- Fix crash when manipulating with guides. Alow to remove guides by dragging them back to onto rulers. Thanks to Jerome Blanchi.
- Zoom level now can be edited via dedicated widget in the bottom-left corner of Canvas Window. Thanks to Caryoscelus.
- Now it is possible to hide File buttons on the toolbar to save horizontal space. Available via “Edit” -> “Preferences” -> “Preferences”. Thanks to Caryoscelus.
- Fixed readability of “Current Time” text widget when using dark theme. Thanks to Chris London.
- Fix HSV color panel not updated when opened. Thanks to Jerome Blanchi.
- Fix issue #234: Objects created with opacity less than 1.0. Thanks to Caryoscelus.
- Fixed crash on attempt to edit “spline point”, “width point” or “dash item” in Parameters Panel. Thanks to Caryoscelus.
- Fixed issues with loading sif files generated by Inkscape (bug #883).
- “Add” converter now supports reverse manipulations for Vector value types. Thanks to Ivan Mahonin.
What’s next?
We plan to continue our work on improving speed of Synfig and iron out the current feature set. As usual we appreciate your support and donations: via downloads or Patreon page. Also, you can support the development by placing a bounty for some bug via BountySource service (in the same way as it was done for memory usage bug). Thank you!