I had this idea of making a program called inksnap, that allows users to create animations frame-by-frame from snaps from inkscape so they dont have to do all the work manually, I know that some people animates with inkscape doing a frame by frame aproach, and thought it would be nice to automate that... idk if there is a plugin or something that already does that, so I wanted to share the idea to get some feedback and maybe also some help if anyone is interested, the difference between inka (my other animation project) and inksnap would be that it allows to do a lot of other things that inka can't do right now since transitioning between two states is a lot more complex than just capturing images. Also idk how popular is to animate doing frame by frame and if is just a waste of time since everyone is expecting something more automated so would be good to know if someone is doing that kind of animation
About fetching pages I'm going to investigate, but I think that is going to be more complex when trying to handle onion skinning on the main inkscape page, but gonna take a look, about layers yes, I'm considering them, watching a few tutorials on how pencil 2d handles them.
About the global time line, there is one in my design, on top of the images, I think makes more sense having them on top since is how almost all animation sofwares handle it, but like your design that is on bottom, gonna consider it.
About preview, I think having a small preview makes sense for previewing fast, but also I will make a button to preview in full screen, the only problem is that unlike other software I can't preview on the main window that would be inkscape window since it doesn't support animations and refreshing inkscape is too slow atm (about half a second)
About the global delay, that seems like a good idea, I had in my original design just a timeline where you can drag to the left or to the right the images, but sure I need a default delay for when you are creating new keyframes.
Idk what transition "combine" means and which other type of transitions are, if you can explain that or link a resource, thanks!
oh and about the workflow, I'm more of a programmer than an artist, so is super valuable your feedback on how it should be, but I'm gonna argue until I'm convinced or I understand why that is better, so feel free to argue if my approach seems odd since I don't have a lot of experience with this tools.
I didn't consider layers in the design of the timeline like for example pencil 2d does, so I will need to rethink that in order to allow user animate multiple layers at the same time and reuse them
If you notice in the image, GIMP preview allows other minor manipulations too. Like increasing the speed, and changing the FPS and scale. Helped me a lot when my initial values were not suitable.
As for layers, would be easier if you consider it as a single entity. Whatever comes in Page 1 ( sum of layers ) = Frame 1
Hi Folks. I'm fascinated by this and eagerly awaiting the outcome. Absent any meaningful coding skills, all I can contribute are these links to old (ancient? prehistoric?) expeditions in the same direction. Maybe you can glean something useful.
Hi! thanks for the info is very interesting, Happy to hear that there is more interest on the project, just in case you haven't seen it I'm also working in another similar program that is using CSS to animate SVG intstead of frame-by-frame aproach https://imvenx.github.io/cssvgweb/#/
this is a recopilation of all the ideas we commented and some that I grabbed from pencil 2d, for a first aproach, of course I'm not considering design.
Hi! I'v been considering that, it would be possible implementing some of the functionality on the other project "inka" that generates transitions, but atm I'm focused on getting the main thing done. Also.. it wouldn't be that much reliable since inkscape implements many features that can't be animated with smil or css animations, so they would need to be made from scratch, and that is one of the cons of inka that actually inksap is trying to solve
Using Inkscape with Other Programs
Inkscape.org
I had this idea of making a program called inksnap, that allows users to create animations frame-by-frame from snaps from inkscape so they dont have to do all the work manually, I know that some people animates with inkscape doing a frame by frame aproach, and thought it would be nice to automate that... idk if there is a plugin or something that already does that, so I wanted to share the idea to get some feedback and maybe also some help if anyone is interested, the difference between inka (my other animation project) and inksnap would be that it allows to do a lot of other things that inka can't do right now since transitioning between two states is a lot more complex than just capturing images. Also idk how popular is to animate doing frame by frame and if is just a waste of time since everyone is expecting something more automated so would be good to know if someone is doing that kind of animation
Nice. Does it fetch layers? Please consider fetching pages. Might be easier. :)
The record and Play buttons are awesome!
Can I suggest a global timeline? I see that there is a play button. Which window will preview the animation? Thanks.
Improved a bit :)
InkSnap panel
Do you think preview is better in a full size window? A small thumbnail might not work when there are too many details.
@meetdilip I gues you are gre :) Nice designs.
About fetching pages I'm going to investigate, but I think that is going to be more complex when trying to handle onion skinning on the main inkscape page, but gonna take a look, about layers yes, I'm considering them, watching a few tutorials on how pencil 2d handles them.
About the global time line, there is one in my design, on top of the images, I think makes more sense having them on top since is how almost all animation sofwares handle it, but like your design that is on bottom, gonna consider it.
About preview, I think having a small preview makes sense for previewing fast, but also I will make a button to preview in full screen, the only problem is that unlike other software I can't preview on the main window that would be inkscape window since it doesn't support animations and refreshing inkscape is too slow atm (about half a second)
About the global delay, that seems like a good idea, I had in my original design just a timeline where you can drag to the left or to the right the images, but sure I need a default delay for when you are creating new keyframes.
Idk what transition "combine" means and which other type of transitions are, if you can explain that or link a resource, thanks!
Hi, thanks for the reply :)
These are simply my suggestions due to my interest in the project. Please feel free to use the best route that fits your workflow.
The transition effects I have seen in GIMP are
1. Combine - puts frames one over the other after each delay. That is 1, 1+2, 1+2+3 etc
2. Replace - replaces frames like in a movie - 1, 2, 3, 4 etc
Please check GIMP for
Filters > Animation > Playback after loading your frames. It has a very helpful interface.
https://docs.gimp.org/en/plug-in-animationplay.html
ok understood the combine.. so is like play the animation with the onion skinning on.
oh and about the workflow, I'm more of a programmer than an artist, so is super valuable your feedback on how it should be, but I'm gonna argue until I'm convinced or I understand why that is better, so feel free to argue if my approach seems odd since I don't have a lot of experience with this tools.
I didn't consider layers in the design of the timeline like for example pencil 2d does, so I will need to rethink that in order to allow user animate multiple layers at the same time and reuse them
Thanks for the positive feedback :)
https://docs.gimp.org/en/images/filters/animation/playback.png
If you notice in the image, GIMP preview allows other minor manipulations too. Like increasing the speed, and changing the FPS and scale. Helped me a lot when my initial values were not suitable.
As for layers, would be easier if you consider it as a single entity. Whatever comes in Page 1 ( sum of layers ) = Frame 1
GIMP export as webp ( animation )
GIF export
Hi Folks. I'm fascinated by this and eagerly awaiting the outcome. Absent any meaningful coding skills, all I can contribute are these links to old (ancient? prehistoric?) expeditions in the same direction. Maybe you can glean something useful.
https://alpha.inkscape.org/vectors/www.inkscapeforum.com/viewtopicf55e.html?f=11&t=6019
https://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/SpecSVGAnimation
https://inkscape.org/forums/extensions/extension-for-traditional-animation-style/
https://github.com/lingo/inkscape_onionskin
Hi! thanks for the info is very interesting, Happy to hear that there is more interest on the project, just in case you haven't seen it I'm also working in another similar program that is using CSS to animate SVG intstead of frame-by-frame aproach https://imvenx.github.io/cssvgweb/#/
this is a recopilation of all the ideas we commented and some that I grabbed from pencil 2d, for a first aproach, of course I'm not considering design.
Very nice :)
wanted to show a bit of progress, it ain't much but it's honest work xd.
Keep going :)
little bit of progress :) keyframe and play/pause working
Awesome!!
Would tweening be possible?
Hi! I'v been considering that, it would be possible implementing some of the functionality on the other project "inka" that generates transitions, but atm I'm focused on getting the main thing done. Also.. it wouldn't be that much reliable since inkscape implements many features that can't be animated with smil or css animations, so they would need to be made from scratch, and that is one of the cons of inka that actually inksap is trying to solve
Btw here is the link to the repo in case anyone want's to contribute: https://github.com/imvenx/inksnap
and here a little demo of what I have so far: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV5SvfoEk6s
OK. I currently use Gimp for animated gifs and a couple tweening programs as needed. Should work as well with this and cut Gimp out of the middle.
What programs do you use for tweenning?
gts2.5.1 and OpenToonz