Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images in order to create an illusion of movement. 2D Animation has traditionally been very expensive because every frame must be drawn by hand. Traditionally 2D animation is created by drawing each displayed image individually. Those images are called "frames" and thus such method called "frame-by-frame animation".
To create good illusion of movement you need to draw many frames, that's why his method requires a lot of time and resources. Even with today´s digital inking and painting software, the process still relies on individuals hand-drawing each frame. This laborious task is called "tweening".
Synfig – Vector Based Free 2D Animation Software
Synfig is a powerful free vector-based open-source 2D animation software package that is designed for producing feature-film quality animation with fewer people and resources. It provides all the tools, including vector shape drawing tools, layers, masking, animation timeline, audio syncing tool, and documentation to design a professional animated film. Synfig eliminates the task of manual tweening, producing smooth, fluid motion without the animator having to draw out each frame individually. This allows you to produce 2D animation with fewer people while producing art of a higher quality.
Vector Morphing Animation
Synfig uses Morphing 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. That allows us to create animation by drawing only key positions at relatively wide time intervals. You need only 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 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.
In both Morphing and Cutout animation, Synfig Studio computes the gaps between the drawn frames (also called "keyframes") and fill the gaps to produce smooth and fluid animation. This process allows animator to create frames for a animated object automatically.
Frame-by-Frame Tracing Animation
Synfig Studio 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 image. 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.
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 Animation Studio, which is especially important for big animation projects.
Download free Synfig Animation Studio.
Synfig Animation Studio file size 64.00MB.
Synfig Animation Studio Website
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