Understanding the animation world in synfig studio

Animation
- Animation is a series of drawings that show action
- Changing the still images slightly will make it look like it is moving

History of animation
- In Traditional animation, Artists would draw by hand and film it. They would
change the image slightly and film the picture. The old method of animation takes
a lot of time to finish.

Synfig Studio
- It is a 2D open-source animation software designed to make high quality
animations with less amount of people and resources

Features of synfig studio

- Pick a start and end point of an object and watch it move

- Morph an object from one point to another
- Animate many things at one time
- Make objects move realistically
- Add sound to make animation more interesting
Parts of synfig studio
Tools and canvas functions

Layer types
- Tools that create objects have different layer types in their tool properties
- Layers for each distinct object and different objects falls under different layer
types
- A tool can create multiple layer types at the same time but atleast one layer type
must be selected in any given time

Draw a Line
1. CLICK TO SELECT THE SPLINE TOOL
2. LOOK AT THE TOOL PROPERTIES PANEL. NOTICE HOW IT NOW OFFERS A
SERIES OF SPLINE TOOL OPTIONS.
3. UNDER LAYER TYPE FIND AND SELECT CREATE A OUTLINE LAYER. MAKE
SURE IT IS THE ONLY ONE SELECTED!
4. NOW CLICK ON TWO DIFFERENT PLACES ON THE CANVAS.
5. CLICK MAKE SPLINE IN THE TOOL PROPERTIES.
6. CLICK THE TRANSFORM TOOL , THEN CLICK THE LINE OR CLICK OUTLINE
LAYER IN THE LAYERS PANEL TO SELECT IT.
7. CLICK AND DRAG A SELECTION BOX OVER A VERTEX THEN CLICK AND
DRAG THE VERTEX TO MOVE IT.
8. CLICK AND DRAG ON A VERTEX WITHOUT USING A SELECTION BOX FIRST
TO PULL A TANGENT HANDLE AND CAUSE THE LINE TO CURVE.

Draw a Shape with Two Layer Types

1. UNDER LAYER TYPE FIND AND SELECT CREATE RECTANGLE LAYER AND
CREATE A OUTLINE LAYER.
2. NOW CLICK AND DRAG THE CURSOR ACROSS THE CANVAS TO DRAW A
RECTANGLE IN A BLANK AREA.
3. CLICK THE TRANSFORM TOOL.
4. CLICK THE OUTLINE.
5. DRAG A SELECTION BOX OVER THE VERTICES OF THE OUTLINE AND CLICK
AND DRAG THEM. NOTICE HOW THE OUTLINE CHANGES BUT THE RECTANGLE
STAYS THE SAME.
6. CLICK THE RECTANGLE.
7. CLICK AND DRAG THE GREEN DOTS THAT APPEAR

Use the Transform Tool to Scale and Rotate

1. CLICK THE TRANSFORM TOOL.
2. CLICK ON THE OVAL TO SELECT IT ON THE CANVAS
3. PRESS CTRL + A TO SELECT ALL THE HANDLES.
4. HOLD THE ALT KEY, THEN CLICK AND DRAG ON ONE OF THE SELECTED
HANDLES TO SCALE THE OBJECT. HOLD SHIFT WHILE SCALING TO CONSTRAIN
THE OBJECT’S PROPORTIONS
5. HOLD THE CTRL KEY, THEN CLICK AND DRAG ON ONE OF THE SELECTED
HANDLES TO ROTATE THE OBJECT

Clear the Canvas

1. PRESS CTRL + SHIFT + A TO SELECT ALL THE LAYERS IN THE LAYERS
PANEL. SELECTING AN OBJECT’S LAYER WILL SELECT THE OBJECT ON THE
CANVAS
2. CLICK DELETE LAYER

Working with shapes

Draw a Car and Group Together the Pieces

Draw the Car Body and Tire

🖰 Select the Rectangle Tool.
🖰 Select Create a Region Layer and Create a Outline Layer and deselect all
other Layer Types.

🖰 Change the Fill Color to white and the Outline Color to red.
 🖰 Draw the body of the car using the Rectangle Tool.
🖰 Click the Transform Tool.

🖰 Click and drag on the upper right handle of the rectangle to pull on the
tangent that will bend the top of the rectangle.
🖰 Hold Ctrl and Click the Region and the Outline Layer in the

Layers panel and click Group Layer. 🖰 Double click on the name

of the group to change it. Rename the group to “Car Body”. 🖰

Click on an empty spot on the canvas to deselect the rectangle.

🖰 Click on the Circle Tool.

🖰 Select Create a Region Layer and Create a Outline Layer and deselect all
other Layer Types.

🖰 Draw a tire.
🖰 Group the Region and Outline of the tire and name the group “Car Tire 1”.
Duplicate the Car Tire
It is easy to duplicate layers in Synfig Studio.

🖰 Click on the Car Tire 1 group in the Layers panel.

🖰 Click Duplicate Layer.
🖰 Rename the duplicate group to Car Tire 2.

🖰 Click the Transform Tool.

🖰 Move the tire into position.

 TIP: Hold Shift to keep the new tire aligned with the previous one while moving it.

Draw the Car Top

To move an object in front of or behind another object, move its layer
above or below the other object's layer in the Layers panel,
respectively.
🖰 Select the Rectangle Tool.
🖰 Draw a rectangle to act as the top of the car.
🖰 Click the Transform Tool.

🖰 Move the Car Top into position.

🖰 Hold Ctrl and Click the Region and the Outline Layer in the

Layers panel and click Group Layer. 🖰 Rename the group to Car

Top.

🖰 Move the Car Top group below the Car Body group in the Layers panel.

Edit a Grouped Object

To edit a grouped object, go inside the group and select the layer
of the object. When creating objects in Synfig, they are either
placed at the very top when no object is selected, or directly
above a selected object/layer. So an object can be created inside
of a group by selecting an object/layer in that group.
🖰 Expand the Car Body group by clicking the arrow next to green
folder icon.
🖰 Click the top most layer in the group.
🖰 Use the Rectangle Tool to draw a stripe across the car body.
Group All the Car Parts
To better control or animate the car as a whole, ALL the parts
should be grouped together. 🖰 Select all the car part groups in the
Layers panel by holding Ctrl while clicking.
🖰 Click Group Layer.
- The objects in the groups can still be edited by expanding the
group they're in and clicking their layer.

About timeline
About Animate Editing Mode
The secret to making animations using Synfig is its Animate Editing Mode. There is a
green man icon to the lower right of the canvas. Clicking it will change the icon and
turn on Animate Editing mode. To create any kind of animation in Synfig Studio
Animate Editing Mode has to be turned on. Anytime a change is made to an object's
parameters in this mode, the change is recorded on the Timetrack and is represented
by symbols called Waypoints.

About the Timebar

At the top of the Timetrack panel is the Timebar. Clicking and dragging along the
Timebar changes the frame you are currently on and allows you to see the state
of an object at a certain frame.

About the Frame Rate

A default Synfig document shows twenty-four frames per second (24.00 fps); this is
called the frame rate. 24.00000 fps means in one second you will watch the
animation from twenty-four frames. It is important to understand frames per
second, because this will help you set when an animation should start and stop. For
example, in this assignment you are going to add text. You will want to leave the
words on the screen long enough for a person to read. You will likely need at least
3 seconds for a person to read the words. At twenty-four frames per second, the text
would need to be on the screen for 72 frames.

If the frames per second is set to twenty-four (24. 00 fps), how

many seconds will the Animate document have played when it
reaches frame number48?
 About Keyframes

A Keyframe allows the user to make Synfig remember the state of the animation at
a certain frame and to tell the program to take that frame into account when
creating waypoints. The information of every parameter of every layer is stored to
be used later when creating a keyframe and each frame can only have one
keyframe. By default, Synfig places a keyframe at 0f when creating a document.

Source:Copyright © TechnoKids Inc.(e-book)