Application

Synfig GSoC application 2021

Why does your org want to participate in Google Summer of Code?

GSoC gives us an opportunity to grow our community of contributors. With GSoC students can work on Synfig full time for 175 hours and that’s a great advancement to our project. But that’s not all - the fact of participation in GSoC attracts attention to our project: before GSoC coding period starts, we get many contributions from aspiring students, who wish to proof their skills to be selected for participation. That’s also a great boost for our project.

What would your org consider to be a successful summer?

This summer we plan to help newcomers to the open source world and attract new contributors.

How many potential mentors have agreed to participate?

1-5

How will you keep mentors engaged with their students?

The student opens GitHub’s issue, which is corresponding to his project and there provides weekly public reports about his progress. Every mentor should follow reports and provide on-time feedback and consultation to student via public discussion in relevant GitHub’s issue or privately via email/IM. Also, every mentor is required to contact student at least twice a week to check for the progress.

Administrator of the project also watches reports and ensures that feedback provided by mentors on time.

How will you help your students stay on schedule to complete their projects?

Every student is required to write a short report about his progress every week, answering those questions:

  • How was the last week? What did you accomplish?

  • What is the #1 thing slowing you down?

  • What do you want to have done by the end of next week?

These weekly blog posts will allow the student’s mentors and org admins to notice if a student is falling behind right away.

How will you get your students involved in your community during GSoC?

In general, we require students to be involved into our community BEFORE GSoC starts and their participation activity influences if their GSoC idea gets accepted as a project or not. All participating students are advised to subscribe (watch) our main repository at GitHub (https://github.com/synfig/synfig) and Forums (https://forums.synfig.org/c/development) to receive notifications about discussions.

How will you keep students involved with your community after GSoC?

Considering that there are no mechanics to 100% guarantee student involvement after the program, we aim to maintain a community with a special attitude, where a student can have a home-like feeling, where he know his work is valued and appreciated by community other members and creative people from all around the world. This is the main motivation to contribute for all current project members.

Given that we put initial student motivation in the first place, we understand that there are situations where a massive and long-term contribution effort it not possible without monetary reward. So, thanks to a regular income of donations we can afford to pay a small grants for implementing some features, for students who have proven their abilities and skill to carry and complete projects. The money for such grants are collected via continuous crowdfunding and other means (see https://www.synfig.org/donate/ for details).

Has your org been accepted as a mentoring org in Google Summer of Code before?

Yes.

Which years did your org participate in GSoC? [Checkboxes]

  • 2019

  • 2020

How many students did your org accept for 2020?

3

How many of your org’s 2020 students have been active in your community in the past 60 days?

0

For each year your organization has participated, provide the counts of successful and total students. (e.g. 2016: 3/4) [500 characters]

2019: 2/2 2020: 2/3

If your org has applied for GSoC before but not been accepted, select the years:

2008, 2010, 2012

Do you have any GSoC participant who can vouch for your project?

What year was your project started?

2006

Where does your source code live?

https://github.com/synfig/synfig/

Organization Profile

Website URL

https://www.synfig.org/

Tagline (up to 80 symbols)

Open-source 2D animation software

Primary OpenSource License

GPLv3

Technology tags (Enter keywords for the primary specific technologies your organization uses. Examples: Python, Javascript, MySQL, Hadoop, OpenGL, Arduino)

c++, gtk, GTKmm, python

Topic Tags (Enter keywords for general topics that describe your organization. Examples: Vision, Robotics, Cloud, Graphics, Web, Real time )

vector graphics, animation, 2d/3d graphics

Ideas List https://synfig-docs-dev.readthedocs.io/en/latest/gsoc/2021/ideas.html#projects-ideas

Short Description

Synfig is a 2D open-source animation software which allows to create motion graphics and cut-out animations for product explanation videos, tutorial videos, etc.

Long Description

About
=====
Synfig is a 2D open-source animation software. It is capable to produce vector artwork and also can work with bitmap images.

The main concept of Synfig is "tweening" - you can define object positions or shapes of vector objects at certain points of time and program will interpolate in-between frames automatically. You can also use bones to control your animation on higher level.

With Synfig you can easily create motion graphics and cut-out animations for product explanation videos, tutorial videos, and more.

Main features
===========

**- Vector tweening**
Transform any vector shape into another! Synfig gives you powerful tools to control every vertex of your vector artwork. Just set the key positions and inbetween frames will be calculated automatically.

**- Layers and Filters**
Synfig provides 50+ layers to create artwork and animation of any complexity. Choose from various layer types: geometric, gradients, filters, distortions, transformations, fractals and others.

**- Bones**
A bone system allows to create cutout animation using bitmap images or control your vector artwork. With an additional Skeleton Distortion layer it is possible to apply complex deformations to bitmap artwork.

**- Linking elements**
You can link parameters of various layers – directly or through mathematical expressions. This allows you to create advanced character puppets and other dynamic structures.

Examples of works created with Synfig
==============================

* [Morevna Episode 3](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecVv2IB7f5k)
* [Polar Detective](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSL-NdoOLQc)
* [Synfig Promo Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8SF_-gJ0_w)
* [Demo Reel by VanChatto](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWAxFc9FPwA)
* [The Deadline](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dVamedBYq8)
* [Pluto takes life](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgSI3IcyXhs)

Proposal Process / Application Instructions

Before applying, please make sure to read [getting started page](https://synfig-docs-dev.readthedocs.io/en/latest/gsoc/2021/getting-started.html).

Application Template
====================

**Name**

Please provide your full name

**Email / Social / Web**

Where can we contact you? If you have a web page you'd like us to know about, please include it. Make sure to mention your Facebook, Twitter or other identities.

**Synopsis**

A short description of your planned GSoC project.

**Benefits**

Describe how your project will benefit Synfig. Will it benefit artists using Synfig? Will it be an aid for future Synfig development?

**Deliverables**

Provide a user-level summary of the final output or results of your project. How does it integrate in Synfig, and how does it cooperate with the rest of Synfig's features? Note that end-user documentation should be one of the deliverables as well.

**Project Details**

A more detailed description.

**Project Schedule**

How long will the project take? When can you begin work?
Include an estimated timeline of the project with mini-milestones.
Do you have any possible school or work conflicts with your schedule?

** Short Bio**

Please let us know who are you, what are you studying (and where), and what activities do you enjoy? What is your experience using Synfig or animation or other computer graphics programs? What code development projects you've participated in? What makes you the best person to work on this project? If you have any history submitting bug fixes or patches to our issue tracker at GitHub, please indicate what you have done.

Proposal Tags

improvement, bugfix, infrastructure

Contacts Methods:

Mailing List: https://forums.synfig.org/c/development

General Email: contact -AT- synfig -DOT- org

Links

Twitter: https://twitter.com/synfig

Blog: https://www.synfig.org/news/