The area of graphic design is a sector with many contrasts in GNU / Linux systems. While Blender is in full capacity to fight with the great proprietary programs, our header photo editor, GIMP, lacks CMYK support. This pattern repeats itself continuously and vectors are no exception. Inkscape It is a fairly developed software, with performance problems above all. As a repeat user, I can say that it meets my expectations and meets my needs, which are not many.
But I am not a professional designer. And although there are examples of designers who exclusively use free software in their work (how Mairin Duffy, joaclint: Jesus David) it is common to hear complaints about the underdevelopment of some specific functions. The case that interests us today: vector animation.
Nina Paley is an entertainer, cartoonist and artist who works and promotes free culture. He has released his works under the Creative Commons-Attribution-Share Equal license, including an animated feature film from 2008: Sita Sings The Blues. On this note he complains about the lack of free software for the editing and creation of decent vector animations and he is not without reason in the motivations he has for asking for it. You need software that you can use and trust as an animator answer What is it. Something that allows your work to be preserved in time and avoid Flash source files that no longer serve in the new versions.
But first, let's contextualize your complaint. I previously mentioned that Inkscape it met my needs as an occasional cartoonist. Anyone who has worked with him will know that he uses the SVG standard for saving. And SVG supports animations. Thus we have solved our first dilemma, since it is not necessary to invent a new format for the graphic part of the work. But Inkscape It cannot edit animations and although it could, it is not the ideal environment to do so, it lacks essential tools for time management and video. Also, the Inkscape team's future efforts are much more likely to focus on 3D support than animation.
Paley tells us what are the characteristics of this dream editor. Special attention when it comes to the graphical interface:
- Mac compatible
- Flash 8-like timeline
- Waveforms visible on the timeline
- Grammar of «symbols», where these can be animated and nested
- Good vector drawing tools
- Extensive video export options
- Independent of the resolution
- Parent-child registration points
- "Bones"
- Custom vector borders (beyond dashes and dots)
- Export to SVG
- And few bugs
Most of these functions are available in Blender, which has an award-winning video editor on its own. Some features are critical, such as the "bones," which function in a similar way to Blender, they would articulate a character and allow us to animate it. And as debatable as the phrase is I am a pragmatist and not a purist When it comes to Mac support in the original document, we could always risk asking for cross-platform software, which ends up helping the adoption of a system like GNU / Linux. I myself attended a talk by Blender (We could spend the whole day giving references about him, but his status as an authority in animation is undeniable) where the speakers worked on Mac. Running anywhere, it is still free software.
And then he drops the bomb on us. A project like that required, according to her, a million dollars. 1 million US dollars, although he claims to settle for a hundred thousand. Is it possible for such a project to collect these figures on Kickstarter? He crowd-funding will it suffice? Where to start from? Do we need this now? These are the questions I want to ask today, because I think they highlight the fragility of free software in the sea of chains.
We have previously heard of projects that reach millionaire figures on Kickstarter, often oriented towards technological gadgets. With the right motivation, $ 100,000 doesn't seem like such an exorbitant figure after all. GNU MediaGoblin hit 42,000 in a hurry; so a campaign with no time limit could make our expectations come true. First point solved.
If he crowd-funding enough is another matter. These campaigns need to deliver gifts to their patrons. We can deduct a good amount from the collected stuffed animals, t-shirts, sweets and other little things, together with the developers' own expenses, such as electricity, quit their job and keep a project site hanging out there. That costs. A free software project should go from being built for the love of art and start thinking about a business model that allows them to float. Training is what comes to mind. Remember that selling free software is completely consistent with the ethical principles behind it. Point two half solved. It is at this point that great ideas die on paper.
There is already a program called synfig for this. And apparently, it does not solve the needs of professionals. To form a fork With the existing code base it should not be a problem, although donating the money for the development of this program may be a good option. Stop channeling efforts into new derivatives and take advantage of what you already have. Possibly. Third point, apparently solved, although I can disagree with the graphic libraries used.
And the answer to the ultimate question is yes. Do we need this now? Yes. We need tools that we can trust again, whatever the platform. The animator would be able to come home from a long day at work and sit down using the same program on his home machine to edit the same type of files, even if his work computer is a Mac of the year and his personal computer a coffee maker. running Ubuntu. Or vice versa.
We need to trust our tools again like I trust my pencil. Trust that you will not betray me even if you know that you will fail. My pencil will lose its point Inkscape an error will appear. But I can trust that my strokes, vector or in graphite, will be able to be opened 2, 3 or 10 years in the future, because there is a standard behind it, consolidated and with the guarantee of at least helping me preserve old documents. Be it my job or my hobby.
It is not just creating software to replace a proprietary one, in the style of the classic mentality of isolating oneself on the free island. Making software like this flourish with so many proprietary alternatives is and will always be difficult. This is the sea of chains I was talking about earlier, from which only innovation and experimentation can draw us. And the trust.
From here I urge you to ask yourself if you trust your tools. That is for me the main advantage of free software. To be able to trust again. Let it be for vector animation today and tomorrow for office automation, computer-aided design or desktop environments. Our reflections of the future will appreciate that the first stone is laid today. Let's put the first stone of free software today then.
I am a Visual Artist and I have developed in the field of web and editorial design in a professional way, I have used free software, including the Operating System.
I have tried several GNU / Linux OS with Ubuntu I have had stability problems especially with Unity, with Debian and Fedora update, Arch is not friendly at all I have only installed it a couple of times and the reality is that it is frustrating to work in a pure terminal Puppy is light but it is short.
Anyway, I have not been able to free myself from Windows, I would like to, but as a designer I cannot get rid of Adobe and Corel, Linux design applications still do not give the width, Inskape's problem with CMYK is very marked, well in fact with everything Regarding color management, Gimp still doesn't do HDR, and Scribus doesn't have good display support yet.
In short, Linux is a long-term proposal in terms of design, I particularly think that power is what helps GNU / Linux the most, but it continues to have very serious problems, so many systems, so many proposals and an indisputable fragmentation.
It is true. It seems useless to me to have distributions focused on a need that cannot be solved with current tools and that there are two different programs to do the same just because they have different graphic toolkits.
I know it's frustrating, but the problem for me is the trust we place in the programs. From hearsay I know that the move from Freehand to Illustrator was traumatic for many and development was ended by something that we can interpret as the whim of the company. In the world of free software, if someone did something like that, the matter is solved with a fork and this is widely confirmed.
The issue is not to end diversity, but to propose common solutions. That for example Unity launcher menus can work in KDE. Reaching such a consensus is our hope in a fragmented world.
I don't know how things are going with Gimp and Inkscape, but I have used both Blender and Maya intensively, and they are similar, even Blender has a certain level of superiority in many tools and the rendering either internal or external (like POVray) is excellent, it The only thing I can criticize about Blender is the export of vector drawings, both in dxf planes and in simple svg drawings, which is not the case with AutoCAD >> Maya (why is it?), but otherwise, Blender is better suited to my needs. Also (and proven) the performance of Blender on GNU / Linux distributions is better than on Windows.
"Ubuntu I have had stability problems especially with Unity"
Did you pronas Linux Mint? Generally it is much more stable than Ubuntu (although 100% compatible), faster and lighter and also has more classic use paradigm desktops such as KDE SC (especially for people who come from Windows years), Cinnamon or Xfce.
"With Debian and Fedora update"
Yes, it is true, the Debian Testing branch software is generally obsolete, but with Fedora I wonder what problems you had and it usually works well and has software up to date.
»Arch is not friendly at all»
For a few users around the world Arch is very friendly, do you lack the necessary knowledge to use it? In this case it is not that the product is not friendly but that you are not friendly with it or do not have the necessary knowledge to use it.
It is nonsense, as if you say: "the 747 is not friendly, I'll keep my bike", claaaaro….
"And the reality is that it is frustrating to work at a pure terminal,"
Of course, because of your quality as an end user, for me the terminal is the panacea and in fact 85% of the use of my machine I do from Yakuake + tmux, the rest is the inevitable use of graphic applications such as web browsers, office suites , etc.
"In short, Linux is a long-term proposal as far as design is concerned,"
I think not so long, the appearance of the version for GNU / Linux of Lightworks (professional video editing software) proves it.
"But he still has very serious problems"
AHA!? Which? That at the moment there are no applications that meet your needs does not mean that it has "very serious problems", in fact the internet today exists largely thanks to the existence of GNU / Linux * cough *
"So many systems, so many proposals and an indisputable fragmentation."
Sure, it is the same idiocy that we continually hear from those zombies who have been using Windows for years 😀
"Fragmentation" should be replaced by "diversity" by what "one size doesn't fit all". There are thousands of designers of footwear, mouses, cars, different artists ... what fragmentation!
NO MASTER, diversity, no fragmentation.
Finally, Windows, MacOS, GNU / Linux, FreeBSD and many other different operating systems were born with different needs, focused on specific uses and many of them have begun to converge towards the same point.
Windows and MacOS being systems focused on the end user from the beginning and having many more years in the market than modern versions of Ubuntu, Fedora or any ready-to-use GNU / Linux system, they have more and more complete applications for many tasks and it is logical for the time they have been developing them, some 20 years.
In this case, it is also notable that beyond the different system interface between Windows and MacOS, the applications that at one time were exclusive to MacOS today work the same or better in Windows, who has stripped MacOS of the platform pedestal for design by excellence. While it is true that Apple products still have the added advantage of their SW / HW integration and special care in the color profiles throughout the system, applications, video devices and printers today you get the same results with running the same applications on Windows-based systems - so Apple ceases to be the platform par excellence for designers and in fact for a long time has tried to insert itself as a multifunction platform for users of all kinds claiming greater stability and other nonsense that No one has yet checked out the fanboys.
In contrast, GNU / Linux and FreeBSD were born as a system dedicated to the environment of business servers and IT professionals and networks, being very recently the massive adoption of GNU / Linux on desktops and laptops, therefore, IT IS LOGICAL that there are still areas in which they are delayed such as multimedia editing. However, and in their favor, the TECHNICAL EXCELLENCE BEHIND THE USER INTERFACE makes them project themselves as the alternative with the most growth in the future and obviously this will be accompanied by the development of the necessary tools to cover the -value redundancy- needs of its users. It is true GNU / Linux is not yet on par with Windows or MacOS in terms of multimedia tools, but it is approaching very quickly and when the internal design of the GNU / Linux system finally arrives, plus having the necessary tools for the development of professionals who choose the platform will position the penguin system as the tacit option when using an operating system.
On the other hand, the eternal instability and security holes of Windows, typical of its design and development, mean that unless it is completely rewritten -a titanic task, impossible to perform in a medium term assuming that you have the financial resources to do it- continue being a mediocre operating system that its users are not aware of and that they would surely stop using - or at least use offline - if they knew about the problems it has.
Don't let your personal appreciation prevent you from seeing the forest. There are also many things that screw me about GNU / Linux and that will always happen to us with each system we use unless we do it to our measure.
According to your vision, the fault lies with the user and not the system. What is the fault of a designer or musician for specializing in art and not in computers? In the end you end up talking about security holes, servers, business applications, and topics that are very far from the topic of the post. You are agreeing with the linux haters "computer knowledge is necessary for linux." Well no, to install Ubuntu you just put a pendrive, I would tell you that it is easier than windows, since you do not need a driver cd for the motherboard. The terminal is useful for those who know it, whether using Arch or Gentoo. Very easy to write emerge -av firefox and that's it, but behind this there were months of study, compilation techniques and handling of flags, very far from the knowledge of an artist. As they always say "Linux is not friendly, but knows how to choose its friends"
Look for free alternatives to Flash Professional, Traktor (and the driver drivers), or Ableton Live. Apple has a very stable and high frequency kernel, something shared with Linux. That's why it's been used for decades in multimedia, it's not that it's pretty (well, some who only see the FB buy it for that: P). What is missing in Linux are programs, and the base is good.
The base is excellent. Some time ago I read a comparison (not exhaustive) between Linux and Darwin and it became clear to me that Linux was the most advanced kernel available. GNU / Linux is an impeccably done system looking from the bottom up. The graphical representation of interfaces has not been around for so long (I mean computing in general) to be shocked by sudden changes.
It is true that so many options generate confusion and that is why I see the idea of common solutions as a hope among all this. I can at least trust my tools, I know that if LibreOffice implements a standard badly today (which is happening) someone will come with a fork to rescue us, which in this case is Apache OpenOffice. I can trust my tools because being free software they obtain a vitality that is impossible to stop and that is the question I wanted to raise in the post.
If we see free software as the most pragmatic incarnation of free culture, then we see that the program must be able to be shared, used, modified, redistributed, sold and other freedoms that cannot be limited because the source code is there. Freedom 0 is an underestimated freedom and that is what I came to say yesterday.
Oo a flamewar on Desdelinux?
A flamewar on Sunday!
Sunday is to rest.
The main problem with Inkscape is stability. I am a professional designer and vector drawing is an important part of my job. I use Inkscape but its performance is slow and heavy with complex jobs. Not even in the outline view is he light with such jobs.
Gimp although it is fantastic, it still has "serious" deficiencies, and in my opinion it is not 14 bits or the lack of CMYK. If not rather the functionality. It is not an "agile" program to work with. There are many details to be polished (I say many, and I do not want to elaborate further).
Even so, I am confident that sooner or later these problems will be solved, and perhaps in the medium or long term all these programs will be unified in a kind of design suite where they share the same high performance that we demand from any professional program (this now is utopia).
It is a harsh criticism, but I insist, it is said by one who works with these programs on a daily basis and is reluctant to use Photoshop, Corel or others that I know equally well but that defends the philosophy of free software.
We must have faith!!!
Have you tried "animata"? It is very good and easy to use, it has shortcomings but it complements very well for animation work
I just looked it up and it gives me a good impression because of how well done the page is. So I see that it is only available for Windows and Mac. There is the source code, something is something. Thanks for the input anyway
"Let's lay the first stone of free software today then."
This is how the note ends, it is a bit of what we always talk about, free software needs much more code in the conscience than in computers.
Un gran tema!