

Interpolation generated directly by the software, accomplishing very smooth animations.Avoid pixels by working with elements based on vectors.
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The quality of the resulting animations is very high, especially if we take into account that this software doesn't work with a frame system, allowing us to generate the animations with a minimum amount of resources and maintain the final quality of the product. Post Scriptum: Program versions usedĪll screenshots were created using Synfig Studio version 1.2.1, which comes with Ubuntu 18.04.If you're into animating, you'll like Synfig Studio, an open-source program that offers you everything you need to create 2D animations by means of vector illustrations. We will skip it here, as this is fairly standard keyframe animation. At the same time we let the eye circle grow.

The eye effectįor the eye we chose a different effect: We reveal it by making our cover circle more and more translucent. Spot the difference… The interpolation will be done by Synfig’s keyframe magic. We show an example of the hulk outline configuration for frame 0 (fully covered):Īs compared to the hulk outline configuration for frame 30 (fully revealed): The key feature is to use the offset position of the so-called width points of the path. There is an article about creating a Write-On effect with Synfig Studio in the Synfig Wiki. In Adobe After Effects a similar drawing animation effect seems to be called Write-On. How do you create a drawing animation? As so often, it is a question of the right Google keywords. For each section we will need to add keyframes. Our next step is to plan the screenplay for our animation. This is a proper path now, perfect for animation. Hiding the other layers, the cover itself looks as follows: Our result is a layer stack on top of the other layers: We have a special plan for its animation. The eye we will cover with a plain circle. We create our cover lines using Advanced Outline BLine. That is, we will cover the shape by default and remove the cover piece by piece with each animation step. Instead of drawing a path, we will reveal the shape continuously. We can choose a sloppy strategy to achieve the same effect. But we are lucky: Our shapes are non-overlapping and spatially well-separated. We would need a simple path for that purpose. We have seen, that our complex shape is not apt to create a simple drawing animation. Drawing is the same as covering and revealing Keep reading, we will find a solution to that later. While drawing a path using keyframes is simple, drawing a complex shape is not. It is rather the outline path of the corresponding shape. You will notice immediately: this is not a proper path with circles as start and end markers. The rectangle is a colored background, the paths correspond to the parts that – for sake of simplicity – I will call hulk, ear and eye. A look at the resultĪfter importing the paths into Synfig and a bit of preparation, we end up with a layer stack: We leave the part of getting your path data into Synfig to you. Converting from EPS to SVG using Inkscape is a piece of cake, importing into Synfig as well. We also received a (potentially lossy) EPS export.
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ai files to SVG using only free software. I could not find a way for converting the native. Synfig Studio supports importing vector drawings from SVG files.Īs most designers, our logo designer Kristaps Kuhalskis uses the proprietary Adobe InDesign. Setting the sceneīefore creating our animation, we need to get our logo into Synfig.
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This article is the first in a series of articles about fun with our ‘phantastic logo.


In this little tutorial, we will create a little animated metamorphant logo:
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The resulting raw logo animation synfig file is available for download and playful use. The article shows a simple technique to create a path-drawing effect by revealing a shape over time. You want to create a 2D animation? The free and open source tool Synfig Studio is your friend.
