**A brand new version of the free, open-source 2D animation software Synfig Studio is now available to download. **
The first release of the cross-platform software in well over a year, Synfig Studio 1.0 builds on its claim of offering “industrial-strength solution for creating film-quality animation” with a suite of new and improved features.
Among them is an improved user interface that the project developers say is ‘easier’ and ‘more intuitive’ to use. The client adds a new **single-window mode** for tidy working and has been **reworked to use the latest GTK3 libraries**.
On the features front there are several notable changes, including the addition of a fully-featured bone system.
This **joint-and-pivot ‘skeleton’ framework** is well suited to 2D cut-out animation and should prove super efficient when coupled with the complex deformations new to this release, or used with Synfig’s popular ‘automatic interpolated keyframes’ (read: frame-to-frame morphing).
New non-destructive cutout tools, friction effects and initial support for full frame-by-frame bitmap animation, may help unlock the creativity of open-source animators, as might the addition of a sound layer for syncing the animation timeline with a soundtrack!
### Download Synfig Studio 1.0 ###
Synfig Studio is not a tool suited for everyone, though the latest batch of improvements in this latest release should help persuade some animators to give the free animation software a try.
If you want to find out what open-source animation software is like for yourself, you can grab an installer for Ubuntu for the latest release direct from the project’s Sourceforge page using the links below.
