Feature List

Sketches | IDE Notes | Studio Animation Software Notes

Vision

Lightrift itself is the actual end-user projector for the animation engine.

Lightrift Studio is the front-end studio animation tool for Anari, for creating animations, designing game interfaces, and writing embedded Ratscript code. (The latter is included directly in the former, so they share a repository.)

Lightrift Studio will have the following features:

• Vector drawing & transformation tools.
• Color, palette, & filter tools.
• Layer management & tools.
• Timeline and animation tools.
• Interactivity tools.
• Audio editing tools (Stormsound).
• Scripting and interactivity tools (Ratscript).
• Project, packaging, and deployment tools for RATS-based games.

Stacy (Calson) Melgard developed the initial design for Lightrift, based on existing IDEs and studio animation software.

Relationship to Synfig Studio

This project was originally going to be forked from Synfig Studio, but we have since decided to write our own code from scratch.

Even so, we are still loosely associated with that project. We have access to design notes and the original (Quattlebaum) code. However, since Synfig Studio is GPL-licensed, we cannot directly use any code that has not been relicensed to us.

Regardless of how we can use Synfig Studio to move our project forward, we will remain involved through the contribution of our own code, insight, and (hopefully) financial support as we are able.

Letters from Robert Quattlebaum

Synfig Studio vs. Lightrift

Synfig Studio is geared towards cinematic animation, whereas Lightrift is geared towards game animation. This is the main reason we don't share a code base (besides licensing issues).