graphical blog 2

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After a try on Xubuntu (the light desktop XFCE version of Ubuntu) of Pencil Gnu GPL licensed animation software (for GNU/Linux, Mac OSX and clone of Wine including MS version called something like ixpi).
,

Pencil is a young but really good application for animation. It’s mainly oriented to traditional drawing animation, but can be used for other things.
Features :
* multilayer (several bitmap layers (on demand), several vector layers (on demand), one(SVN include several) camera layer, SVN include sound layers)
* pan, zoom, rotate of the view (allowing drawing on a rotated canvas) objects and camera
* tablet pen pressure management for drawing (on pencil, brush and dip pen).
* onionskin for the pleasure of animators :)
* import of bitmaps (and SVG vector format as bitmap).
* export as MOV, only on Mac and perhaps wine clones)
* export frame by frame png (with transparency) or opaque jpeg, this should be reopened easily with Gimp Animation Package or assembled in a movie with mencoder (in mplayer project) and transcode.
* export as SWF movie (my test was not really good, only vector part worked perfectly in svn version, with libming version 0.4.0.beta5)
* timeline with keying of layers objects
* interpolation of camera movements
* palette management (GPL gimp/Inkscape/Agave palette format isn’t managed for now)

Update : The following described problem was due to libXi < 1.1.3, you can easily correct this by installing libXi-1.1.3 (lib) and the dependence inputproto >= 1.4 (proto), the last one are on x.org mirrors, go to individual subdir and then the lib or proto subdirs to get these versions. Upgrade only these two libs works with x.org 7.2

I really liked it, then tried to compile it on my main Linux From Scratch production computer, the compilation works perfectly, but sadly, when I tried to launch it on my LFS box, I obtained the following error:

Pencil: xcb_xlib.c:41: xcb_xlib_lock: Assertion `!c->xlib.lock' failed.
Aborted

This is a common problem on xlib coded application, that yet aren’t tested on libxcb_xlib systems. XCB is a replacement of Xlib on X11 graphic interface, that allow faster access to graphical ressources a better way. XlibXcb is a wrapper to Xlib, allowing application coded for xlib to take transparently benefits of the new xcb architectures. But there is still some software that aren’t compatible, due to some light errors on (un)locking.

Some GNU/Linux distro patched libxcb to automatically pass this or doesn’t install xcb_xlib wrapper to avoid errors.
Some other have patched it with an environment variable to set to avoid the bug:

export LIBXCB_ALLOW_SLOPPY_LOCK=1
launch_your_application


Else the main two possible errors, for not corrected applications are:
xcb_xlib.c:41: xcb_xlib_lock: Assertion `!c->xlib.lock' failed.
xcb_xlib.c:50: xcb_xlib_unlock: Assertion `c->xlib.lock' failed.


More information on this Debian-devel message:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2006/11/msg00010.html

The libxcb patch proposed in Linux from scratch with LIBXCB_ALLOW_SLOPPY_LOCK settable variable.

I don’t have only the bug only with Pencil, but with few other applications:
xsetwacom (from linuxwacom project) and few other. Searching on Google, at least some release of Sun implementation of Java suffer the same bug.

I hop this will help some people using those application and having bug to find a mean to avoid it until these application are patched.

The animatic was made with paper and pencil on lighting table.
The background is quick acrylic painting.
The whole is scanned/assembled with Gimp Animation Package (GAP), then the pig is coloried with gimp tools with GAP.
This was done in june 2007

Click on the picture to download/view the animation (XviD format)

Pencil

free and open source animation tools now works on Linux/Mac/Wine there is even an Ubuntu package on the Pencil site. I don’t understand everything (how to move object/camera/vector graphics ?), but it looks good and doesn’t crash ;). Graphic tablet pressure is well supported (even via X11 remote network display :) ).

Cet article est aussi en français.
The internation animation festival of Annecy was really good this year for the animation, I especially liked some of them :

* Beton Beton (see the film) from Ariel Belinco & Michel Faust, Israël (special award).
About the new stupid wall. TVPaint was used to do this (an Amiga video painting software at least 15years old).

* 2 Aardmans, but one I particularly loved : The Pearce sisters from Luis Cook, UK (jury award).
About two fishermomen sisters on a desertic island, very gore, very dark, nice design, cool animation, good ideas, I really liked it.

* ‘Peter and the wolf’ from Suzie Templeton, UK (Annecy crystal & public award)
Excellent version, with the nice music of Prokofiev, stop motion, with a little bit a totally invisible digital imaging (I didn’t see). Animation, backgrounds and characters are really excellent.

* ‘Devochka dura’ (’foolish girl’) from Zojya Kreeva, Russia (« jean-luc Xiberars » of first creation award).
Really excellent for the animation, and study of chidrens behavior. I would even say perfect. pencil and a touch of watercolor. litlle scenes of children in low school in Russia.

* Must be seen !! ‘ L’homme de la lune ‘(see the film) from Serge Élissalde, France (Sacem award).
I really like this aniamator, then my critic could be subjective, but that really really good film ;).
I believe that’s marker pen and numerical or water color or mix of both for colors. Adaptation of a Novell, about people in the moon eating cheese.

* « Welcome to White Chapel District » from Marie Vieillevie, France (junior jury price for an end of studies film).
Spoke about, with several animation technics, of poor families( more than 200,000 today) in U.K., depainting several fiamillies from a popular area of London and problems they encounter linked to poverty. Based on childrens testimonies. Very good lesson of sociologie. Good lesson for french that (following some politicians) think that poverty is only in France due to social system and than english liberalism is better, often don’t even understand poverty in France.

Some other :
* ‘The Tale of How’(see the film) (South Africa, 2d+3d with great sound band and really humoristic lyrics. Slightly in the Monthy Python style.
* ‘Premier voyage’ (France, stop motion, in the style and spirit of today french BD blogs)
* ‘T.o.m.’ (UK, numerical painting).
* « Milk Teeth », (UK, numeric puppet), a child and its older sister in a corn field, very disturbing.

Le festival international du film d’Annecy a été particulièrement bon au niveau des prix cette année. J’étais très déçu globalement les années précédentes, mais cette année, j’ai beaucoup aimé.

*« Beton Beton (voir film) » d’Ariel Belinco & Michel Faust, Israël (prix spécial).
A propos du nouveau mur stupide. TVPaint a été utilisé pour le faire (un logiciel crée sur Amiga il y a bien au moins 15 ans).

* 2 Aardmans, mais j’en ai particulièrement aimé un, très différents des autres : « The Pearce sisters » de Luis Cook, UK (prix du jury).
Ca parle de de sœurs pêcheuses sur une île perdue, temps type breton, vent et pluie tous les jours. Tres gore, glauque à souhait, bourré de petits détails géniaux, l’animation est excellente.

* « Pierre et le loup » de Suzie Templeton, UK (cristal d’annecy & prix du public)
Excellente version, avec la superbe musique de Prokofiev, marionnettes et volume et une touche de digital plus que discret (je n’avais rien vu). L’animation, les décors et les personnages sont géniaux.

* « Devochka dura » (fille dingue d’après la traduction anglaise) de Zojya Kreeva, Russie (prix « jean-luc Xiberars » de la première œuvre).
Vraiment excellent au niveau du travail de l’animation. Je dirais parfait même. Crayon (graphite, pierre noire ????) et legeres touches d’aquarelle, il s’agit de petites scènes d’enfants dans une crèche ou maternelle russe.

* L’incontournable « L’homme de la lune »(voir le film) de Serge Élissalde, France (Prix SACEM).
je suis un inconditionnel d’Elissalde, donc, ma critique ne compte pas, mais bon, c’est génial !!!
Du feutre (je pense) et de la mise en couleur je sais pas comment, en tout cas il y a pas mal de numérique, utilisé comme il faut, pour que ça ne fasse pas trop numérique. J’adddoooooree.

* « Welcome to White Chapel District » de Marie Vieillevie, France (prix du jury Junior pour un film de fin d’études).
Ca parle, avec des tas de techniques différentes, des situations des familles pauvres ( plus de 200.000 aujourd’hui d’après le film) en Grande-Bretagne, en se penchant sur plusieurs familles d’un quartier populaire de Londres et des problèmes qu’ils y rencontrent liés à la pauvreté. Ca pourrait sans doute aussi se passer en France. Bonne leçon de sociologie et remet en place les idées qu’essaient de nous faire passer certains politiciens que les Britanniques vivent tous dans de bonnes conditions avec le libéralisme (ils sont en train de faire un retour a un état plus social vu la catastrophe).

Ensuite, en vrac :
* « The Tale of How »(voir le film) (Afrique du Sud, mélange 2d,3d. avec une superbe bande son, et des paroles désopilantes) A faire sous titré absolument si vous ne comprenez pas l’anglais. Il y a un léger coté Monthy Python.
* «Premier voyage » (France, volume, très frais, très drôle, dans l’esprit de ce qu’on voit dans les blog bd français d’aujourd’hui)
* « T.o.m. » (UK, peinture numérique)
* « Milk Teeth », (UK, marionnettes numériques), Un enfant et sa grande sœur dans un champ de maïs, troublant.

Drawing on paper, scaned, assembled with Gimp+GAP.