Make beautiful animated clips and films with professional 2D animation software. There’s a new age of animation. Advances in vector art, puppeting, motion capture, and tweening have helped evolve moving images from a niche in specialty TV and film onto banners, GIFs, YouTube cartoons, and live web events. Apr 19, 2019  Free animation software? What more could you want? Here's a video about 3 software packages designed for animation! - Animation packages down below.

• 3d Animation For Mac
• Free Animation Software Download

Antics 2-D Animation; Operating system: Windows XP and later. Description: The Antics 2-D Animation software is a proprietary vector-based 2-D application for animators and graphic designers, running under Microsoft Windows. It was created in 1972 by Alan Kitching, the British animator, graphic designer, and software developer. 2D animation is one of the oldest form of animation, it is created when multiple drawing frames are represented one after another to create an animation. There are many different methods available for making 2D animation. One of the effective and modern method for making it is by using a software. These five free 2D animation software are.

Animation is a wild thing. From Toy Story to Flash cartoons, animation has captivated the world for years. Specifically, 2D animation has roots in history going back to the advent of movies. This also ties into gaming as well. We all love games like Braid, Metroid, and Castlevania.

However, it is one thing to sit on the sideline like me and just merely enjoy the games. It’s another thing to dive right into the animation process. Scared to get started? Don’t be! There are tons of options for the newbie animator to get their feet wet in the industry. In fact, I’ve ranked such a list of said products just for you.

I will be ranking these programs on some criteria like ease of use, price, and quality. For example, a program that super easy to use but is extremely expensive will probably suffer in the scoring department as one that might be more difficult to use and is free to use.

Overall, I’ll use one of three rankings: Light recommend, moderate recommend, and hard recommend. Let’s get to the list instead of having me drone on! What follows first is the list of the best free 2D animation software.

Best Free 2D Animation Software

1. Synfig

First up we have Synfig, a program first released for free in 2005. This software is great because beginners can just hit the ground running.

It allows for both front end and back end design, meaning that you can design the actual content at the appearance level, not being constrained to just code behind the scenes.

Price: Free and open-source

Moderate Recommend

2. TubiTube

TupiTube is a software project focusing on the younger children’s market of animation. This is a much more casual program for animation. But sometimes, the more casual the better I say. It has great ease of access, with users being able to download it easily and get started making some videos.

Its versatility is great as well, as it can be seamlessly used between different platforms.

Its casualness may rub some more serious-minded animators the wrong way, and that’s why I’m lowering its score a bit. But if you have no idea what you’re doing at all, this software can’t steer you wrong.

Price: Free

Light Recommend

3. Pencil2D

3d Animation For Mac

This free program uses a great little design where it gets rid of all the complicated mumbo jumbo that might intimidate animation amateurs. Its simple design is simple yet serves a great purpose.

It’s a no-frills kind of experience, but one where even the most newbie animator can draw and create videos. Pencil2D also has great cross-platform capability.

Price: Free

Jun 12, 2019  Photo Print simplifies the printing of pictures. Let's say you have a family party where you snap some photos and then you want to print them out for your guests. After you load them into iPhoto, you can then just drag and drop the pictures into predefined Photo Print layouts and then hit the print. Print your own photos in Photos on Mac. You can print photos in several standard sizes, or select a custom size. You can also print more than one photo per page using a contact sheet print format. You can print photos in black and white or in colour, depending on your printer’s capabilities. Mac photo management software. Let's say you have a family party where you snap some photos and then you want to print them out for your. Free to try True North Software Corporation Mac OS X 10.6/10.7 Version 3.0 Full Specs. Mac OS naturally enhances and colour corrects the raw to a digital input. It is home based printing specialized and allows you to select multiple photos from different folders and print them in the desired format depending on how you arrange them and specify the size you need. This software supports BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG and TIFF graphic formats.

Moderate Recommend

4. Opentoonz

Opentoonz has a range of cool in-house effects that can be seamlessly used while making your animations. Opentoonz allows for extensive editing of the code, too. So, once you get good enough at animation, you can bend the toons to your whim! However, that could be difficult for some users.

Price: Free

Moderate Recommend

5. PowToon

This is entirely a web-based animation program. It’s a nifty, free little browser gem. It allows you to move scenery around, props, move your characters.

It’s primarily used by businesses to spice up their boring old meetings. But good on them for moving in the right direction!

Price: Free

Light Recommend

6. Animaker

Animaker is much like PowToon in that you set up a storyboard and animate the characters or props in that scene. It’s used by companies like Google, Verizon, and Pepsi.

It’s ideal for ad placement on websites and it’s super easy for beginners to use. They make it super-fast and easy to get lost for hours animating.

Price: Free

Light Recommend

7. Plastic Animation Paper

Plastic Animation Paper is another piece of software that deals heavily with the concept of pencil drawing.

The program is designed for quick and easy use and includes clear resolution. You can do whatever you want with your drawings and using this program could elevate them to the next level.

Price: Free

Moderate Recommend

8. Pencil

Pencil allows your drawings to come to life. It adds a little zest to your creations by allowing you to insert different image layers to your drawing, as well as integrating sound and different cartoon features.

It reminds me a lot of GIMP and Photoshop, except with the emphasis on the actual drawing. Pencil is free to download and is a no brainer for anyone who loves pencil drawing, or who just wants to casually tool around on it.

Price: Free

Moderate Recommend

9. Adobe Flash

Ah, a classic! Back in the day, Adobe Flash ruled the animation world for beginners. Users worked day and night on their cartoon series, their fun games, and other media ideas using this program. It has a long history, and it has earned its reputation.

It’s still going strong in 2020, and you can still use it. But to be honest, I’d probably recommend one of the newer, more unique apps and software to start or continue your animation journey.

Price: Free

Light Recommend

10 Krita

This one was a little gem I dug up, and I’m glad I did. Krita is a free program created by a team of passionate artists that wants everyone to be able to have access to advanced art tools.

You can create beautiful paintings, drawings, and animation scenes using Krita. It was voted the best painting software of 2019 by TechRadar.

Price: Free

Hard Recommend

Now it’s time for the more polished, paid 2D animation software. I’ll use the same scoring criteria above: Light Recommend, Moderate Recommend, and Hard Recommend.

Training for Animation Tools

Free 2D Animation Software [Infographic]

Top Paid 2D Animation Software

11. Moho

I’ve heard a lot about Moho and it’s no wonder why. It’s a comprehensive animation program where your animations are basically on the level of some of your favorite creations. Yeah, I’m talking professional-looking animation here. It’s geared toward animators looking to hone their craft.

The price can be a little steep for first-time animators, so take care. But I think there’s a lot of gold here. If you’re up to the task, (and the price), you could create some unforgettable stuff here. Not to mention they’re constantly adding updates.

Price:
$399.00

30-Day Free Trial
Hard Recommend

12. Crazy Talk Animator 3

Crazy Talk is a fun little program that requires little to no effort to make some cool animations. The company even states it’s all about ‘low effort’ when it comes to their software and the relationship to users. Want to dive right in and animate? Crazy Talk Animator 3 might be just what you needed.

Currently, the 4th version of Crazy Talk Animator is in development, so keep an eye out!

Price:
$49.00 for Standard
$99.00 for Pro
$199.00 for Pipeline

Free Trial
Hard Recommend (especially for amateur users)

13. Toon Boom Harmony

Aside from having a catchy name, Toon Boom Harmony is especially geared towards beginners. Touting itself as ‘The most powerful software ever created for animation production’, it mixes user-friendly UI with advanced animation potential. The extensive features on this thing are insane.

Detailed painting and drawing, 2D/3D integration, and even pipeline integration are all in this one package. However, the learning curve on Toon Boom Harmony might be problematic for some.

Price:
Annual Harmony Premium: $73/month
Annual Harmony Advanced: $38/month
Annual Harmony Essentials: $15/month

OR

Perpetual Premium: $1975
Perpetual Advanced: $975
Perpetual Essentials: $375

Free 21 Day Trial
Hard Recommend

14. CelAction2D

CelAction2D allows you to create truly unique animation projects. Its ease of use is a dream and the controls are pretty easy to pick up, even for newer animators. Not only that, but it’s heavily used making TV and movie spots, so you know it’s quality.

You’ll look—and probably wince—at the price, but there are so many features that I got to say, it could very well be worth your time and energy.

Price:
Studio Edition: $1350
Professional Edition: $949
PlusOne Module: $1599

Hard Recommend

15. Stop Motion Studio

Right off the bat, I’m drawn into Stop Motion Studio’s opening pitch, ‘Want to create movies like Wallace and Gromit or those groovy Lego shorts on YouTube? Stop Motion Studio helps you to create terrific stop action movies with a whole host of unique features.’

Now I’m a huge fan of both of those beloved franchises, so I’m in. I guess those super cool and easy to use features are great too. This is great for everyone, as it’s an easily downloadable app, and you can use it across your Apple devices. For the price and potential, how could I NOT recommend it?

Price:
$4.99 on iOS
$9.99 for Mac

Hard Recommend

16. FlipBook

FlipBook is a great animation program that beginners can easily pick up. It teaches you the fundamentals of simple animation through the process of your creation. Watching the video about it was somewhat soothing with the simplicity and familiarity it exuded.

Just pick up your stylus and you’ll be moving on from MS Paint to the big times. Senior Disney Animator Andreas Deja had this to say about FlipBook,

“As a lover of pencil animation, I am thrilled using FlipBook, because it is so user-friendly. It completely serves my needs to experiment with some short film ideas. I highly recommend it.”

Need I say more?

Price:
Lite: $19.99
Studio: $59.99
Pro: $149.99
ProHD: $199.99

Hard Recommend

17. Toonz Premium

I like this program. As a sucker for pencil drawings, it harkens back to older days where I was an avid sketch artist. They’re determined to bridge the gap between paper animation and current as well as future animation.

Their autocorrecting software is great, always updating to make sure your drawing is up to date. Ever hear of a little show called Futurama? Toonz Premium was used for it. It’s currently in build 7.4.

Price:
You have to contact the sales department for a price on the full product.

Free Trial
Moderate Recommend

18. DP Animation Maker

Now compared to the others on this list, this program is a little simpler in its aims. You can take any 2D image and animate it, bringing it to life. It has an easy user face and no complicated jargon or code to wrestle with.

It reminds me of a lot of photo editing programs, as it has a multitude of brushes and different effects that you can add to your image.

Prices:
Free Trial
DP Animation Maker $37.77
DP Screensaver Maker $34.77
DP Wallpaper Maker $34.77

Light Recommend

19. Sprinter

Sprinter is great for animating games. I imagine if in the early-mid 2000s, if the guys over at Newgrounds, known for animating, didn’t’ use Flash, they’d use Spriter. They utilize modular animation to make your gaming dreams a reality.

Modular animation is animations built out of individual sprites. This allows for an easier time when animating, and saving you time.

Price:
$59.99 for Spriter Pro

Hard Recommend

20. RETAS!

Now here’s a unique one to us Westerners. RENAS is a special suite of programs that have to do with the creation and animation of anime. It’s highly regarded in Japan as the gold standard in animation programs.

Its sheer number of possibilities is too numerous to list, but the endorsements it garnered are a testament to its greatness.

Price:
Contact the company

Moderate Recommend

It seems to me that nearly all the paid software is pretty dependable and robust. I noticed a lot of ‘Hard Recommends’ from me. Of course, some prices are steeper than others, but it depends on what you’re trying to accomplish.

For my money, I would most likely go with Toon Boom Harmony or Stop Motion Studio if I were taking up the mantle of an amateur animator.

Regardless, we are all so fortunate to have such a great little menu of animation programs to choose from in this day and age. No matter your preferences as a beginner animator, you can find a 2D animation program for you.

Top Paid 2D Animation Software [Infographic]

Current Stable Version (v0.6.4)

Last Updated on 31 May 2019.See What's New in v0.6.4

Having trouble running the program? please see theTroubleshooting.

Other ways to install Pencil2D

Free Animation Software Download

Nightly Build

Nightly builds are the bleeding edge versions of Pencil2D, which contains the most recent fixes and features. The following links will direct you to Google Drive, please right-click on a file and select Download. The filename is pencil2d-OS-year-month-date. See What’s New in nightly builds.

Troubleshooting

• Qt5Widgets.dll was not found

  1. Right click on the file you just downloaded and select Extract all.
  2. Go to the location you just extract to, find Pencil2D.exe and double click on it.
     

• msvcp140.dll is missing

  Double click and install vcredist_x64.exe or vcredist_x86.exe inside the Pencil2D folder.

• api-ms-win-crt-runtime-l1-1-0.dll is missing

  Download and install the following windows updates:

  • Win7 32bit: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=51137
  • Win7 64bit: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=51161
  • Win8 32bit: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=51106
  • Win8 64bit: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=51109
    

• Pencil 2D can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer. (Mac users)

  Right click on the file and press Open.

Still getting in trouble? Please go to Pencil2D forum.