What’s coming to Synfig 1.4.0 (part 3)

Okay, are you ready for final part of our “What’s coming” series? Here it goes!

Editable curves in Graphs Panel

Now graphs has control points, and you can drag to change curve shape. Multiple selection for waypoints is also available. You can also use arrow keys on keyboard to move points.  Double-click on a curve creates a new waypoint, Ctrl+A/Ctrl+D shortcuts are selecting/deselecting all points. Much thanks to Rodolfo Ribeiro Gomes for implementing this!

Easy import of image sequences

Now it is easy to import image sequences – just choose “File” -> “Import sequence…” from menu.

Control point for shifting Transformation Origin

Now transformation widget has a special control point to easily change origin of transformation.

New rendering mode for workarea

In version 1.3.11 we have implemented downsampling algorithm for images. This greatly improves quality if your scene uses big images scaled to smaller size. Unfortunately, this operation demands additional CPU resources and you will notice general application slowdown when working with such scenes.

There is an option to enable Draft rendering mode (it disables downsampling), but this solution doesn’t fits for all cases, as it is hides many layers, which could be important for you.

So, we added one more display mode for workarea – “Preview” – which displays all possible layers, but with some simplifications – i.e. no downsampling (and maybe some other simplifications will be added in the future). “Preview” mode is giving a fair compromise between speed and display quality and is used by default in GUI. For more details please check this discussion.

Sound

We did a major cleanup of code responsible for sound playback, fixed non-working volume parameter and eliminated synchronization issues.

More than that, Rodolfo Ribeiro Gomes implemented a special panel to display waveform. Now it’s so easy to sync your animation with soundtrack!

Open images in external tool

Ankit Kumar Dwivedi implemented a possibility to open images in external editor. Right now it is possible to configure preferred image editor via relevant option in Preferences. After that you can right-click any Image Layer and choose “Edit image in external tool…”.

Improvements for Advanced Outline

Added two new types of tips, that can be used to define outline start/end and dashes. Those new types called “Off-Peak Stop” and “Inner Rounded Stop”.

With this addition you can easily do effects like shown here (source file):

Switch Layer

Now it is possible to select visible layer by index in Switch Layer. This is done using a new parameter – “Active Layer Depth”. The parameter takes effect when “Active Layer name” parameter is empty.

Rectangle Layer

Rectangle Layer now capable to have two types of rounded corners and horizontal/vertical feather. Users with a deep knowledge of Synfig know, that those features were available in Filled Rectangle Layer (not the same as Rectangle Layer), which was a part of Example layers. Now all those features are merged into standard Rectangle Layer, and the Filled Rectangle Layer is removed. See GitHub’s issue #745 for details. Thanks to Yash Kapoor for this work.

Baking animation

Now you can “bake” animation of any parameter! This operation “burns” any interpolated curve as a sequence of waypoints.

Result:

Saving window layouts

Now it is possible to save your workspace layout – just choose “Workspace” – “Save workspace” from menu. Also you can edit list of custom workspaces by calling “Workspace” – “Edit workspace list…”. Thanks to Rodolfo Ribeiro Gomes for this feature!

Gamma handling

Since the very beginning of its development, Synfig was handling all color calculations with Gamma value set to 2.2. As result, there were a lot of issues with color interpolation and blending, like this one.

We decided, that it is good moment to get rid of this behavior and changed how Gamma handled in Synfig. The tricky part here was to keep compatibility with old files. Here’s what we did:

• Gamma is now defined on per-document basis (in previous versions it was an application-wide setting). So, now every document has its own gamma value defined. You can see/change Gamma value by selecting “Canvas” -> “Properties” from menu and switching to “Gamma correction” tab.
• For all newly created documents Gamma is set to 1.0.
• Old documents (from previous versions) are opened with Gamma set to 2.2, so you won’t notice changes (although you will still notice same artifacts from old version, like the one noted here). You can manually set Gamma to 1.0, to get rid of those issues, but this will change the look colors would look in your animation.

So, with this change users should not notice any change when working with their old documents. Still you can encounter an issue, when copying layers from old files to new (and vice versa) – the colors of copied layers appear different in destination document. This can be easily fixed manually as described here.

Other improvements and changes

• Improved process of creating Splines and Polygons: now it is possible to finish shape creation with double-click or by hitting Enter. Also you can click first vertex of Spline to loop and finish shape creation.
• Double-clicking waypoint in Timetrack panel shows Waypoint Properties dialog.
• “Amount” parameter renamed to “Opacity”.
• Now it is possible to remove Layers by hitting Delete key.
• Tab placement crosses now hidden by default and revealed only when user starts dragging some panel. See issue #238 for details.
• Finally fixed a very old and annoying issue with Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V shortcuts behavior, which was making impossible to use them for text entries in UI (layers were copy-pasted instead). Thanks to Rodolfo Ribeiro Gomes.
• Now it is possible to change animation length directly from workarea (see issue #684).
• Render options: Changing rendering target now automatically changes extension of output file (see attached gif). Thanks to Ankit Kumar Dwivedi.
• Now workarea has a widget to change length of timeline. Thanks to Mohammad Shafi for implementing this.
• Fixed wrong behavior of “Lock Ratio” button in Canvas properties and Rendering window (issue #771).
• Brush Tool is now disabled by default. User can get it back by enabling “Experimental features” option in Preference.
• Fixed issues with Canvas not preserving Length and Resolution after export (issues #715 and #874).
• Home/End keys now set time cursor to start/end of timeline.
• Fixed issue with Linear interpolation for Integer paramters (issue #828).