[ANSWERED] Papagayo Help

I am a new animator and I want to know if there is any way to get Papagayo (The lip-sync animation program) to work on Pencil 2D. Another alternative that will make me just as happy-even more so maybe, is if there is a way to play the sound layer from somewhere in the middle; let me elaborate, Whenever I want to animate over sound it makes me play the sound from the beginning, I cannot start in the middle of the file. Is there a way to fix/bypass this?

@cartoonutopia Hey Nick, welcome to the forums (actually I think i’ve seen you before, maybe on tumblr, or else)

Regarding your questions:

  1. Yes, of course there is a way to get papagayo into Pencil2D, actually there are many ways, the problem lies in the work you have to do in order to accomplish that. I myself have always wanted to get papagayo into Pencil2D. But it’s always been a difficult feature request.

Just a bit of history to contextualize the answer. Papagayo was made by Lost Marble (anime studio / moho creators) and used to be written in the Python language, since no one maintained that the Morevna project (Synfig studio) kept maintaining it and actually just a few days ago (May 15th 2017) they released a new branched version called Papagayo-NG to make it their own and continue to develop it further and beyond.

However note that Pencil2D is written in C++, so C++ and python have different ideas, C++ is a statically-typed + compiled language, while python in all it’s glory is dinamically type (the language infers the type of your variables) and is interpreted (no need for compiling). Many programmers will tell you both have their advantages and disadvantages, but the problem we have here is that you can’t use one piece of code from one language with the other as easily.

Anyway, Lost Marble actually updated their papagayo version to C++ and then left it to sleep, again. One could hypothetically use the lost marble branch and merge it with Pencil2D if there is sufficient knowledge of QT (the framework Pencil2D uses) and C++, but here’s the catch:

Merging Papagayo with Pencil2D would be a bad choice from a philosofical and programming standpoint. Pencil2D has come to terms with it’s own vision and we want the program to continue to be the lightweight and easy to use program that it’s always been, despite it’s rough edges which can always be improved upon implementing such element could be detrimental for the software.

However, my original Idea was to actually first ask the devs to implement a way to “plug-in” other pieces of software. If you’re familiar with blender they use Add-ons that run thanks to the API (Application Programming Interface) that blender provides. Now, Pencil2D does not have this (an API), but if it could, it would be a great way to allow for other kind of functionality to populate the program without compromising it’s core, not only Papagayo’s but any other sort of trinket one could come up with.

TL;DR It can be done but without people willing to work on it, it’s impossible to think of it right now I’m afraid.

  1. For your second question, actually the newest development version of Pencil2D allows you do play the sound from any frame now. We still can’t scrub the timeline but it’s a great step for the sound layer.

If you want to test that download it here:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxwRs73A_v_aZGdJSGZtd0FQOEU

A fair warning though, It seems someone was trying to introduce a stabilization feature, so the drawing tools might feel different but I’ve been having issues with my Wacom tablet since every X amount of strokes I get one random dab as I was pressing hard.

To me the best drawing functionality is in the November 2016 Nightly Build version. I have yet to report this odd behavior as it a regression from what we had. But even so many other things have been fixed and we’re seeing light out of this long dark tunnel that was Pencil2D development.

Sorry for the wall of text, but hopefully this gives you perspective into what’s being done and why.

Jose Moreno. Thank you for the information! Also, I had known you’ve seen me before, I can not be sure where, although I remember talking with you at one point.
I am glad to see a new version of Pencil2D with fixes in the sound layer.
Also, I completely relate with your experience with the program. I also use the November 2016 Nightly Build of the program (And on an unrelated note I also use a Wacom Tablet) and I find it works the best for me. Thanks so much for helping out, animation was rough with the sound layer issues.