We are happy to announce the release of new stable version of Synfig Studio! This version summarizes our work for the last 12 months, delivering several new features and  many important fixes. Please read detailed notes about the changes below.

This release is made possible thanks to many people who supported Synfig development with contributions through Download page, Patreon and  Bountysource platform.

Draft Rendering Mode

Draft rendering mode is intended to improve the usability of application with “heavy” scenes. When Draft mode is enabled Synfig turns off rendering of all time-consuming filters and applies a set of approximations to get faster updates workarea. This is useful if you wish to concentrate on animation process and need fast workarea updates while making changes to your characters and scrubbing your time cursor. To see a full list of filters that get disabled please consult this page.

Original scene – 694 milliseconds

 

Draft mode – 124 milliseconds

 

You can toggle Draft rendering mode using a special button on the toolbar, right above the workarea:

Thanks to Ivan Mahonin for implementing this feature.

Filter Groups

Filter Groups act just like ordinary groups, with just one exceptions – they do not limit scope for layers. That means, if you put several filter layers into a Filter Group, then they will be mixed together and apply as a single filter to the layers below.

What is this useful for? First, if you have a combination of filters, you can quickly enable and disable them all together with a single click.

Another advantage is that with Filter Group you can have a better control at which point blending will take place. Also, you can use blending for layers that are not supposed to have it (like Translations, Stretches, etc.). That allows you to easily create effects like mirror reflections and complex shadows.

Please check the video below to see this feature in action.

Our special thanks to the user under Zozorg nickname, who have made an initial request for this feature and sponsored its development.

Live image reloading

When any image you have imported gets changed in external application, then it is automatically reloaded in Synfig. No need to close and re-open file to see the changes! See video demonstration:

Thanks to Artem Konoplin for implementing this feature.

Keyframe widget in Curves Panel

In previous versions it was not possible to edit keyframes directly from Curves Panel. Now you can! Also, keyframe marks now displayed with curves. Thanks to Artem Konoplin for implementing this feature.

Portable version for Windows users

Together with regular installers, we now providштп a portable build, which allows to run Synfig on Windows without installation – just unpack downloaded zip archive and start the application. This allows users to have several versions of Synfig installed on the same system.

Improved UI layout

Less space for buttons and scrollbars – more for your artwork! In this version we did some tweaks to make UI more compact.

Other GUI improvements

  • Automatically select new layer when image is imported (issue #368). Thanks to Artem Konoplin.
  • Allow to rename layers with F2 key (issue #465). Thanks to Artem Konoplin.
  • Allow to delete layers by pressing Del key. Thanks to Artem Konoplin.
  • Allow to zoom canvas by holding Ctrl and middle mouse button. Thanks to Alyssa Rosenzweig.
  • Fix color wheel being stuck to red on zero saturation (issue #452). Thanks to Caryoscelus.
  • Implemented correct sorting in Sets Panel (issue #372). Thanks to Caryoscelus.
  • Automatically choose “ffmpeg” target when rendering to “mp4” files. Thanks to Konstantin Dmitriev.
  • Remove cairo-rendering from preview dialog (issue #370). Thanks to Ivan Mahonin.

Functionality fixes

  • Fix Low-Res rendering mode (issue #401). Thanks to Ivan Mahonin.
  • Fixed error preventing user to move keyframe at certain circumstances (issue #503). Thanks to Artem Konoplin.
  • Auto-recovery now works again (issue #363). Thanks to Ivan Mahonin.
  • Fix disconnect of Transformation Parameter – it was impossible to disconnect linked (as opposed to converted) nodes of transformation type using “disconnect” action (issue #438). Thanks to Caryoscelus.
  • Amount set to 0 for missing images (issue #373). Thanks to Ivan Mahonin.
  • Fix for the cases when PNG file imported with incorrect color (issue #366). Thanks to Ivan Mahonin.
  • Fix wrong selection area for Circle Layer (issue #442). Thanks to Olivier Jolly.
  • Fix compatibility with ImageMagick 7 (issue #478). Thanks to Matthew White.
  • Fix broken localization (issue #408). Thanks to Ivan Mahonin.

Stability fixes

  • Fixed crash when user press Esc key during the rotation of the object (issue #470). Thanks to Artem Konoplin.
  • Fixed crash with Spline Tool tangent menu (issue #485). Thanks to Artem Konoplin.
  • Fix crash on attempt to run plugin (issue #502). Thanks to Artem Konoplin.
  • Fixed crash on Windows when closed file is re-loaded (issue #521). Thanks to Artem Konoplin.
  • Fixed freeze on SVG import (issue #290). Thanks to Artem Konoplin.

Get source code | View revision history

This Post Has 20 Comments

  1. Jose D. Moreno

    Congratulations! Thank you for all the hard work 😀

  2. Cristian Gil

    Thank you very much and congratulations for the improvements that they have achieved. If they allow me to some humble suggestions, it would be very good to be able to move multiple points of events of different parameters simultaneously in the time line and that the paintbrushes of MyPaint run also like vectors.

    1. Konstantin Dmitriev

      We are considering both features for the future. ^__^

  3. BobSynfig

    A little swap of links between Win64 .exe and .zip (portable) version on FossHub 😉

    1. Konstantin Dmitriev

      Fixed now! Thank you for reporting! ^__^

  4. Kevin Wilcoxon

    Konstantin has been tireless in his leadership of the Synfig project, as well as the animation community in general. I think we all owe him our gratitude.

    1. Konstantin Dmitriev

      Thank you for the kind words! All thanks to our wizard-developers Ivan Mahonin and Artem Konoplin – they put so much effort into this release!

  5. AntohaRDNS

    Хороший инструмент!

    Можно смириться со скоростью работы.
    Можно смирится с необходимостью “рендерить” 2d картинку.
    Можно смириться с отсутствием drag&drop в окне Layers.
    Но работа с waypoint’ами – это ад:
    нельзя выделить / снять выделение рамкой несколько waypoint’ов
    нельзя скопировать несколько waypoint’ов,
    нельзя удалить / изменить свойства сразу у нескольких waypoint’ов

    В любом случае спасибо за огромную работу!
    Syfing меня удивил – программа оказалась намного более сложной и продуманной, чем я предполагал!
    Удачи в разработке!

    1. Konstantin Dmitriev

      Здравствуйте, Антоха! Улучшение работы с waypoint’ами стоит у нас в планах. Пока, к сожалению, не могу сказать когда точно это будет реализовано, но в любом случае – эта функци в списке “must-have”. ^__^

  6. Olivier PIGNOT

    Just started using the app and it is very good, could be my favorite vector based animation program so far.
    Easy to use, very user friendly interface.
    I’m more of a traditional 2D drawing animator but Synfig might make me change my habits.

    Very good work guys.

    Thanks for your work

    1. Konstantin Dmitriev

      I am happy to hear you found it useful! ^__^

  7. Adam

    Yeah, downloaded it. Donated $30. Every time I try to render it, the entire system crashes. Most $30 I ever spent.

    1. Konstantin Dmitriev

      Hello, Adam! I am really sorry to hear you have issues with Synfig! Please check the email I sent to you – I hope we will be able to resolve this.

  8. ldco

    Ребята молодцы, но у вас ошибка на главной странице – надо françAis а не françOis.

    1. Konstantin Dmitriev

      Спасибо! Исправлено. ^__^

    1. Konstantin Dmitriev

      Yes, good idea. Can you please create a GitHub issue for that? ^__^

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