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Synfig Studio

2D vector animation with automatic in-between frames and bone rigs. Ideal for cut-out characters, motion graphics and explainer films.

2Danimationvectortweeningbones

Synfig Studio
Menu 2D Animation → Synfig Studio
Version 1.5.1
Command synfigstudio
Good for Beginner
Files .sifz, .sif; exports PNG sequences, GIF, video
Licence GPL-3.0
Website synfig.org
Self-test animux-selftest synfig

In Synfig you do not draw every frame. You set the important poses (waypoints) and Synfig calculates the frames in between (tweening). Characters are built from shapes and can be moved with bones, like a puppet.

Synfig Studio with the Animux bouncing-ball sample: canvas in the middle, tools on the left, parameters and layers on the right, timetrack at the bottom.
Synfig Studio with the Animux bouncing-ball sample: canvas in the middle, tools on the left, parameters and layers on the right, timetrack at the bottom.

The window#

Panel Use
Toolbox (left) transform, circle, rectangle, spline (draw shapes), fill, text, bones…
Canvas (middle) your picture; the Animation mode button at its bottom right (red when on) records changes as waypoints
Params settings of the selected layer (colour, position, radius…)
Layers every shape is a layer; group them to build characters
Timetrack waypoints over time; drag them to change timing

Animate a ball in five steps#

The sample /usr/share/animux/samples/synfig/bouncing-ball.sif is a finished example; open it with File → Open to look at it. To make your own:

  1. File → New. Set the length in Canvas → Properties → Time (for example End time 48 at 24 fps = 2 seconds).
  2. Choose the Circle tool and drag on the canvas to draw a ball.
  3. Click the Animation mode button (bottom right of the canvas): the canvas gets a red frame.
  4. At frame 0, place the ball at the top. Move the time slider to frame 12 and drag the ball to the bottom; at frame 24 back to the top. Synfig adds waypoints and fills in the frames.
  5. Press Play. Turn animation mode off when you are done.

Make it look natural: right-click a waypoint → Both → Ease In/Out for slow-in and slow-out.

Export#

File → Render: choose the file name and Target:

  • png (image sequence, best quality, for editing in Kdenlive),
  • gif for the web,
  • ffmpeg for a video file.

Or from a terminal:

synfig bouncing-ball.sif -t png -o ~/ball/frame.png        # all frames
synfig bouncing-ball.sif -t gif -o ~/ball.gif
synfig bouncing-ball.sif -t png --time 12 -o ~/frame12.png  # one frame

Learn more#