Overview

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As you probably know, animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images in order to create an illusion of movement. Traditionally 2D animation is created by drawing each displayed image individually. Those images are called "frames" and thus such method is called "frame-by-frame animation". To create a good illusion of movement you need to draw many frames, that's why this method requires a lot of time and resources.
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[[File:Traditional-animation.gif|x150px|frame|center|A traditional frame-by-frame animation, taken from : http://flipily.com|link=http://flipily.com]]
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{{literal|Synfig Studio}} is an [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software open-source] 2D vector animation software. It is designed to produce film-quality animation with less people and resources.
  
{{DevNotesBegin}}This page is currently under development. It is by no means ready for use.{{DevNotesEnd}}
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Synfig Studio is built to eliminate the need to draw each frame individually. There are two techniques for that:
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* Morphing animation
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* Cutout animation
  
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== Morphing ==
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[[File:Rose4b.gif|thumb|100px|right|Morphing animation of a rose, by Rore]] '''Morphing''' is a technique that takes two images and creates a smooth transition between them. In the process of morphing, one shape is deformed into another and this transformation is usually defined by control points.
  
= What Is Animation? =
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In Synfig Studio images are constructed from vector shapes and the morphing is done automatically. This allows us to create animations by drawing only the key positions at relatively wide time intervals. You need only to draw a few frames as needed to create a basic sense of motion for the scene, and Synfig Studio will create the in-between frames.
Well, do we really have to explain that here? You wouldn't be here if you didn't have a glue, right?
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<br style="    clear: both;">
  
I like what I found at Wikipedia:
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== Cutout animation ==
"Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement."
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[[Image:Cutoutsample.gif|thumb|100px|left|Cutout animation in Synfig's tutorials]]
Animation, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Animation&oldid=358878912 (last visited May 1, 2010).  
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'''Cutout animation''' is created by splitting objects into parts and applying some simple transformations to them (like translation, rotation or scale) at different moments of time.
  
That sounds very much like every video or movie is an animation, because it is always a series of pictues displayed.
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Synfig Studio uses those values to interpolate the motion for in-between frames. Cutout animation can be produced from bitmap images or vector graphics.
But the important part is "[...] artwork or model positions [...]".
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<br style="   clear: both;">
  
So the question is now haow do we get the artwork or the model positions?  That leads us to the ...
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== Synthesis and other functionalities==
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In both cases the role of Synfig Studio is to fill the gaps between the drawn frames (also called "keyframes") and produce smooth and fluid animations. This process is called "tweening".
  
= Types Of Animation =
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Although Synfig Studio is not directly intended to draw animation frame-by-frame, it can be used to bring your hand-drawn frame-by-frame animation to the film-quality level by converting bitmap data of each frame into vector format. This process is called "tracing" and usually done by hand by constructing vector shapes on top of bitmap images. In the process of construction you can apply a lot of fascinating effects built into Synfig Studio to achieve a professional look for your animations.
Some say there are 4 types of animation:
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<!-- TODO: Illustration - bitmap image and same image traced in Synfig Studio -->
* traditional animation
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* stop motion (or step-by-step)
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* computer animation
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* other animation techniques (like: dawn-on-film, paint-on-glass)
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we do not think that this is very helpful as many techiques can now be done, enhanced or mixed with computer tools.
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But another 
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= Types Of Computer Animation =
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Whether you do frame-by frame animation or not, Synfig Studio gives you flexible control over the repeated data, such as colors, outline characteristics, textures, images and many more, even animation trajectories and their sets (actions). Reusing repeated data is achieved via linking. This is a power of Synfig Studio, which is especially important for big animation projects.
  
= The Animation Creation Process =
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Among the plain linking pieces of artwork data you can also define relations between them using a set of functions. That allows to create automatic animation based on the defined laws and bring whole animation process to the next level.
The full process includes the following steps:
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[[Image:Parabolic-shot.gif|frame|center|Parabolic shot in Synfig's tutorials]]
* development
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* pre production
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* production
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* post production
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* sales and distribution
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We will look closer into pre production, production and post production steps.
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<!-- TODO: Write a few lines here that Synfig can be used to produce simple animations too -->
Develoment takes care of the creation of the story as such and does typically not include creation of any artwork other than textual descriptions.
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Sales and Distribution are important, but also do not have an animation content as such.
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== Pre Production ==
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All those features of Synfig Studio are covered in detail in the chapters of this manual.
the following tasks are usually seen as being part of pre production
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*
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*
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== Production ==
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<!-- TODO: About this manual/Structure of this manual: The purpose of first chapter is to give you overview of the animation creation process using Synfig Studio. Without diving deep into details it will guide you through the basic concepts and offer few exercises that help you to understand how this software works. -->
 
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== Post Production ==
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= When Do I Use Synfig Studio? =
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Latest revision as of 12:33, 28 March 2020

Navigation Navigation:  Manual>>

As you probably know, animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images in order to create an illusion of movement. Traditionally 2D animation is created by drawing each displayed image individually. Those images are called "frames" and thus such method is called "frame-by-frame animation". To create a good illusion of movement you need to draw many frames, that's why this method requires a lot of time and resources.

A traditional frame-by-frame animation, taken from : http://flipily.com

"Synfig Studio" is an open-source 2D vector animation software. It is designed to produce film-quality animation with less people and resources.

Synfig Studio is built to eliminate the need to draw each frame individually. There are two techniques for that:

  • Morphing animation
  • Cutout animation

Morphing

Morphing animation of a rose, by Rore
Morphing is a technique that takes two images and creates a smooth transition between them. In the process of morphing, one shape is deformed into another and this transformation is usually defined by control points.

In Synfig Studio images are constructed from vector shapes and the morphing is done automatically. This allows us to create animations by drawing only the key positions at relatively wide time intervals. You need only to draw a few frames as needed to create a basic sense of motion for the scene, and Synfig Studio will create the in-between frames.

Cutout animation

Cutout animation in Synfig's tutorials

Cutout animation is created by splitting objects into parts and applying some simple transformations to them (like translation, rotation or scale) at different moments of time.

Synfig Studio uses those values to interpolate the motion for in-between frames. Cutout animation can be produced from bitmap images or vector graphics.

Synthesis and other functionalities

In both cases the role of Synfig Studio is to fill the gaps between the drawn frames (also called "keyframes") and produce smooth and fluid animations. This process is called "tweening".

Although Synfig Studio is not directly intended to draw animation frame-by-frame, it can be used to bring your hand-drawn frame-by-frame animation to the film-quality level by converting bitmap data of each frame into vector format. This process is called "tracing" and usually done by hand by constructing vector shapes on top of bitmap images. In the process of construction you can apply a lot of fascinating effects built into Synfig Studio to achieve a professional look for your animations.

Whether you do frame-by frame animation or not, Synfig Studio gives you flexible control over the repeated data, such as colors, outline characteristics, textures, images and many more, even animation trajectories and their sets (actions). Reusing repeated data is achieved via linking. This is a power of Synfig Studio, which is especially important for big animation projects.

Among the plain linking pieces of artwork data you can also define relations between them using a set of functions. That allows to create automatic animation based on the defined laws and bring whole animation process to the next level.

Parabolic shot in Synfig's tutorials


All those features of Synfig Studio are covered in detail in the chapters of this manual.


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