Per‑Character Text Animation

status — reviewed September 2026

Where the project actually stands

The feature is implemented as an end-to-end pipeline within Synfig. Layer_TextGroup converts shaped text into reusable Layer_GlyphShape layers, maintains glyph identity and layout, and manages shared animation relationships. AnimShare and ValueNode_AnimShareList store sharing configuration, while ValueNode_TimeOffset provides the per-glyph temporal offset used for staggered playback. Studio widgets and Synfig actions provide the editing and undo/redo interface, and the complete state is serialized with the canvas.

Types introduced or modified: Layer_TextGroup, Layer_GlyphShape, AnimShare, ValueNode_AnimShareList, and ValueNode_TimeOffset.

for users

Users Guide

A Text Group turns typed text into a managed set of glyph layers, each one still under the Text Group's direction. What follows is how to give those glyphs their own motion, and how to hand that motion to one another.

What is a Text Group?

One text object becomes a managed collection of glyph layers, while a single Text Group parent still controls layout, font, and color. The glyphs live inside its subcanvas as implementation children — you don't create them directly, and they aren't meant to be treated as ordinary top‑level layers.

Making your first per‑character animation

1. Create the text. Add a Text Group, type HELLO, and set its font, weight, size, and layout as usual. The Text Group shapes the text and builds glyph layers in its internal subcanvas.
2. Select a glyph. Select the source Glyph ie the first letter, the H — and animate its Scale from 1.0 up to 1.3 and back. Rotation, Scale, and Animation Offset are exposed as glyph‑level parameters. The Text Group's own origin stays separate and shouldn't be treated as a shared parameter.
3. Open Share Animation. In the Text Group's Share Animation list, add an entry and choose Scale from the parameter selector — the custom picker built for this purpose, so you're choosing a glyph parameter rather than hunting through value‑node internals.
4. Set delay and order. Delay controls how far each glyph is shifted in time from the source animation; order decides which glyph gets the earliest part of it. Forward order moves E‑L‑L‑O in sequence after H.
5. Preview, then save and reopen. Confirm the same list, delay, order, and resulting animation come back exactly as you left them.

one shared animation, five glyphs, each sampling it a little later than the last

Creating a Text Group from the Synfig Studio layer menu.

The generated Text Group hierarchy contains independently addressable glyph layers.

Independent glyph editing on the canvas.

Glyph-level parameters exposed by the Text Group workflow.I would not recommend sharing Origin but you can try.

The Share Animation control and its stagger configuration (Textgroup Parameters).

Right click the Share Animation to insert.

After insert, edit parameter to add parameter you want to share.Edit stagger delay and order here to manipulate animation.

The dropdown list initialy has no entry...only the parametrs (of source glyph) that have been animated appears here.

The First letter of the textgroup is the source glyph.So on animating it (scale in this example) will automatically be added to the list. Reselecting none would delete the entry.

A shared animation being edited in the working document.

←

→

Sharing an animation, in plain terms

A source animation lives on one glyph's parameter. When you share it, the Text Group resolves that animated value node and connects it — through a per‑glyph time wrapper — to the same parameter on other glyphs. Delay is how far apart each glyph samples it; order is who goes first. A positive delay should always mean a later glyph starts later, not earlier — a wave forming rather than every glyph twitching at once.

Order

The seed changes the random ordering without touching the animation itself — a way to try several controlled variations of the same effect. Change the seed, and the order reshuffles; keep everything else the same.

Choosing a shareable parameter

In text Group animation, any glyph parameter that supports animation through waypoints can participate in a shared animation relationship. This includes properties such as Scale, Rotation, Opacity, Color, Z Depth, and other animatable parameters exposed by the glyph layer.

When a parameter is shared, one glyph provides the animation and the participating glyphs evaluate that animation through their own animation timing. The shared parameter therefore moves together as a coordinated animation, while each glyph can still have its own transform and timing context.

The practical rule is simple: if a glyph parameter is animatable and can be represented by the value-node system, it can be considered a candidate for sharing. The exact parameters available depend on the glyph layer and the parameter editor.

Stagger recipes

Three practical starting points cover common reveal, pulse, and randomized-sequence effects.

Editing and undo

Adding, editing, or removing a sharing entry is handled through Synfig's action system. These operations therefore participate in Synfig's normal undo/redo mechanism, including creation and removal of the first sharing entry in a Text Group.

When a sharing relationship is removed, glyphs that already had their own animation before sharing can have that original animation restored. A glyph that had no animation before sharing has no independent animation to restore; its parameter state is instead reconstructed from the current sharing state at the time of the operation.

In other words, an existing per-glyph animation has something concrete to restore, while a previously static glyph must derive its state from the point in time at which the sharing relationship is removed.

Timeline advice

Stagger adds time to the sequence. If the source animation lasts T and there are N glyphs with a per‑step delay of d, the last glyph can need roughly T + (N−1)d to finish. Leave enough timeline after the source animation for the whole staggered sequence to land — the final letter is often still moving after the first one has stopped.

how it got here

Development History

A milestone timeline showing how the feature evolved from its foundation to the final Studio workflow.

the storyboard

Demo

One continuous Spider-Man title animation, built progressively. Each stage shows the resulting animation together with the exact keyframes and sharing configuration used to create it.

Frame 0   → (0.10, 0.10)
Frame 6   → (1.37, 1.37)
Frame 12  → (0.90, 0.90)
Frame 18  → (1.07, 1.07)
Frame 24  → (1.00, 1.00)

Frame 48  → (1.00, 1.00)
Frame 52  → (1.06, 1.06)
Frame 56  → (0.98, 0.98)
Frame 60  → (1.00, 1.00)

Frame 0   → (0, -180)
Frame 8   → (0, 25)
Frame 16  → (0, -8)
Frame 24  → (0, 0)

Frame 0   → -180°
Frame 8   → 25°
Frame 16  → -6°
Frame 24  → 0°