Synfig 1.5.0 Release Notes¶
Rewritten TimeTrack Panel¶
Now working with waypoints is so much easier - you can select multiple items using bounding box selection, duplicate and scale them, navigate to next or previous waypoints using “n” and “b” keys (holding Shift skips 5 waypoints).
Also, the new Timetrack Panel now indicates segments when value of parameter remains constant.
Improved Sound Panel¶
Sound Panel now has a list of available sound layers. This way it’s much easier to choose which waveform to show in the panel. See issue 1346 for details.
New Skeleton Tool¶
The new intuitive Skeleton Tool allows users to easily create bones. With this tool it is also possible to easily change the structure of skeletons by re-parenting bones.
See this documentation page to learn more about this feature - https://synfig.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tools/skeleton.html.
Rewritten Text Layer¶
Text Layer fully rewritten and optimized, which results in much faster rendering (#2362).
Text Layer now have proper support for RTL languages (i.e. Arabic) (#2232). Please notice that if you use a string which mixes RTL and LTR text, then you might need to set a “Direction” parameter in Text Layer to indicate the proper order.
Text Layers now visible when workarea displays its content in Draft mode (#631).
Fixed issue with “jumping” letters in animated text (#389).
Fixed issue with quality regression under Text Layer (#831).
Fixed glitched rendering output when Text Layer is combined with Perspective Layer (#1566).
For Text Layer it is now possible to select font family from drop-down menu in Parameters and Tool Options (PR #1432, #2355).
the list shows all fonts available in your system, so it is so easy to
choose one now!
Optimized Perspective Layer¶
The Warp Layer was completely rewritten and ported to the Cobra render engine. We also renamed it to Perspective Layer, as it sounds more intuitive for users.
As result, the new Perspective Layer works much faster than the old Warp Layer (see detailed report about speed tests) and also fixes some old nasty bugs (see issues #318 and #418).
Some other improvements in Perspective Layer:
Perspective Layer is rendered with simplifications when the workarea uses Preview or Draft mode. This allows to achieve more than 3x speed increase.
Perspective Layer now has a new parameter - “Interpolation” - which allows you to optimize quality for final Render.
Reworked Plugins Infrastructure¶
Now anyone with knowledge of Python language can write plugins which allows Synfig to export/import new formats and those formats will become available
In this version the Plugins system was improved to allow writing import/export functions using Python language. Now anyone with Python knowledge can extend Synfig’s capabilities to import or export new file formats!
Such import/export plugins are not displayed in the regular “Plugins” menu, their functionality is available through “File -> Import” or “File -> Export” menu commands instead.
With this change, the Lottie Exporter now called through “File -> Export” menu.
As another notable example, you might want to check this awesome plugin, which adds capabilities for import/export of SVG, Telegram Animated Stickers (TGS) and Lottie (alternative implementation). The image below shows a sample “tiger.svg” file imported into Synfig using this plugin.
For more information about the improved plugins system check this documentation page. There are also relevant discussions here and here.
Improvements for Import and Export¶
Lottie Exporter now has new mode, which exports outlines without variable widths (see PR` <https://github.com/synfig/synfig/pull/1647>`__#1647). This greatly reduces the size of exported files and we advise to use it if your animation does not have outlines with variable widths.
Import image dialog now has “Scale to fit canvas” option (PR #1507).
“Import Sequence” function now allows to detect duplicate frames in image sequences. In case if a duplicate frame is detected it doesn’t put extra waypoint, which results in cleaner timeline and better readability.
Synfig now capable to import TSV and XML file formats, generated by Rhubarb Lip Sync (see issue #2169 for details). It works in the same way as Papagayo Lipsync import, shown in this video.
AnimatedFile Converter got support for more data types - String, Angle (degrees), Bool, Integer, Real, Time and Vector. This is useful for cases when you have animation data (like object coordinates along time) generated by another software and you wish to use that data in Synfig. See issue #2211 for details.
Usability Improvements¶
New option for Onion Skin allows to choose between Keyframes and Frames (#2166).
Now it is possible to create a new vertex on a Spline with double-click (#2312).
In this version it is possible to merge/split tangents for multiple vertices. See issue #2010 for details.
Now it is possible to set the number of rendering threads from Preferences dialog (#1999).
Eyedropper Tool now has the ability to select fill color using Ctrl+click.
Added possibility to stop rendering process.
Icon themes¶
Now it is possible to change icon theme for Synfig Studio. Icon set (theme) can be placed in a folder inside “share/synfig/icons/” path (eg. share/synfig/icons/new-theme-folder) and then activated by setting the SYNFIG_ICON_THEME environment variable (eg. SYNFIG_ICON_THEME=new-theme-folder). See PR #1483 for details.
Please notice that this is just a first step in ongoing work on implementing theming support for Synfig Studio. You can check this discussion for details.
CMake build system¶
This version introduces the possibility to build Synfig using CMake. Although this build method is not yet suitable for creating packages, it greatly simplifies the build process for those who wish to compile Synfig for development or testing purposes. Please check this documentation page for instructions.