After a year and a half of development, Synfig 1.5.4 has been released. It advances the 2D vector animation editor used in the production of the animation project "Morevna." The package is designed specifically for animation and enables the creation of cinematic-quality work without the routine intermediate rendering of each frame. The project code is written in C++ and distributed under the GPLv3 license. Synfig builds are created for Linux (AppImage), Windows и macOS.
Synfig is notable for its layer-based compositing tools—you can use geometric shapes, gradients, filters, distortions, transformations, fractals, and more as layers. The editor also supports contour gradients, allowing you to add soft shading to animations without having to draw them on each frame. Drawing with tablets is also possible, with line thickness varying based on pressure, among other things.
Smooth animation is achieved through automatic interpolation of image changes between keyframes. HDRI (High Dynamic-Range Imaging) technology and floating-point calculations are used to ensure accurate color reproduction and a wide range of brightness. Imported raster images and vector objects are supported, allowing for resolution-independent work.
Key features of Synfig 1.5.4:
- Added an angle converter that supports integers.
- Implemented keyboard shortcuts for locking and unlocking past and next keyframes.
- A new "Alpha Intersection" mode has been introduced for blending layers with transparency.
- Improved functionality for transferring palette values via the clipboard.
- Added initial support for SVG elements with text and Lottie layers with text.
- The Bevel, Noise, HalfTone2, and HalfTone3 layers have been migrated to use the faster Cobra rendering engine.
- Optimized import of image sequences.
- Improved parameter passing by reference.
- Artifacts when drawing contours have been eliminated.
- Fixed undefined behavior of Undo/Redo operations after value conversion.
- Fixed crashes when importing invalid PNG images.
- Improved import of images in SVG format.
- Fixed issues with font rendering.
Source: opennet.ru
