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.
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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.
Verdict: Syngif Studio is free 2D animation software for beginners developed to create high-quality vector 2D animation in a small group. You can work with vector objects to create both small animated pictures and draw the entire cartoons. Compared with other free 2D animation programs, Syngif Studio can boast of a professional interface with a window for the image and dashboards (tools. Free download Pencil2D Pencil2D for Mac OS X. Pencil2D is a multi-platform, open source animation/drawing software. Synfig Studios - Free. Open-source and free 2D animation maker software for Mac, Windows, and Linux. User-friendly 2D animation software for Mac, Windows and Linux. Suitable for beginners. Toon Boom - Paid (starting from USD $23 monthly) but offers free trial. A powerful 2D animation video software for macOS. Animation Paper is one of the best animation software on the market right now and offers a variety of 2D animations for multiple uses. Compatible with Windows, Linux, and Mac, this software is useful for pro-animators, film-makers, students, and game developers.
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
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 a great cross-platform capability.
Price: Free
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.
![Editor Editor](/uploads/1/2/7/7/127750616/816079654.png)
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 of 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
Related:The Top Colleges for Animation Students
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.
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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
$399.00
30-Day Free Trial
Hard Recommend
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
$49.00 for Standard
$99.00 for Pro
$199.00 for Pipeline
Free Trial
Hard Recommend (especially for amateur users)
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
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
Perpetual Advanced: $975
Perpetual Essentials: $375
Free 21 Day Trial
Hard Recommend
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
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
$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
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.
You have to contact the sales department for a price on the full product.
Free Trial
Moderate Recommend
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
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
$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
Contact the company
Moderate Recommend
Related:2D vs 3D Animation: What’s the Difference?
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]
Harnessing the power of a child’s imagination is not always easy. By giving them access to the right tools and skills it is possible for children to use animation software so that they can bring their drawings and doodles to life on a digital format. There are a number of programs that make it easy for kids to understand and develop their imagination/ storytelling skills in drawings and animations.
Many companies now produce versions of their animation software that are designed with menus for kids. This makes it easier for beginners to take some of their first steps into animation without having to deal with the extensive learning curve for a new program.
In this article we will go through some of the best animation programs that are designed currently for kids in 2-D animation and 3-D animation. By learning some of these programs as possible for children to harness their creativity and enjoy a greater experience with animating their ideas.
Part1. Top 5 Best 2D Animation Software for Kids
#1. Best Overall: VideoScribe
Videoscribe is a program that is designed to assist with whiteboard animation tasks. It’s created by a British company named Sparkol. The program itself is very easy to use and it comes with a series of online image tools where users can get access to royalty free images that they can use for all of their own projects.
Videoscribe is a program that also features an add-on which is called TAWE. This can be especially helpful for children because it’s easy to turn any image or photo into a simple presentation solution where you can rotate, zoom and animate an image as well as add voiceovers.
Videoscribe software can be one of the simplest programs to use and it remains one of the most user-friendly solutions available for all levels of experience. Even kids with zero animation skills can quite easily reproduce a number of animated videos and create competitive animation styles in a fraction of the time that it would take to learn other programs.
#2. Runner-up: PowToon
Powtoon represents one of the best online applications for building storytelling animations, infographics and academic presentations. There’s a number of animation effects that can be added from a drop-down list and kids love experimenting with this online program.
Powtoon also makes the process of creating presentation files very simple, you can use a number of free templates to create presentations and animations with just a small amount of effort and this can be ideal for kids that are complete beginners with presentations and more.
The quality of the animations are excellent in this program and many of the top Leading brands worldwide use premium Powtoon to create videos for their own company. Kids can use the templates and online or learning strategies to really build up a great quality of work here.
#3. Animatron
Another choice that is perfect for children to learn on is Animatron. This is a free animation software that is perfect for kids to turn their ideas into a selection of cartoons.
The application can be used to animate, narrate and draw a wide range of content that will work on various levels. Parents can use Animatron for building whiteboard style presentations and animations as well. The Lite mode here is what makes it the perfect choice for kids as this is a drag-and-drop solution for harnessing their creativity. The program has integrated this mode to make it safe for kids above eight years to use regularly.
#4. Vyond (Goanimate)
Goanimate remains one of the perfect tools for building attractive animations for students and academic presentations. With corporate professionals and teachers using these tools regularly, the comprehensive online animation and presentation is perfect for building some fantastic experiences. There are some predesigned animations in this program that are perfect for kids of all ages and for individuals in almost every type of industry.
#5. FlipBook
Flipbook remains a program and animation software that can be very simple to use for high-quality 2-D animation tools.
Kids can draw directly on the screen or use a touch display interface to move items around and build animations. It’s quite easy to add on soundtracks as well as sync up audio within the program.
Flipbook is a program that’s mostly designed for teens and older kids and it is possible to quite easily paint one frame at a time along the program or to generate solutions using some of the templates online.
Part2. Top 3 Best 3D Animation Software for Kids
#6. Best Overall: Muvizu
As an easy and very fun to use animation software, anyone can build some high-quality 3-D scenes with the help of this tool this remains one of our best recommended tools for kids who want to break into 3-D animation.
The animation system within the software helps you to build 3-D animations which are customized with animated characters and a number of predefined characteristics. The developers have created this project to make sure that it’s suitable for students, educators, professional animators and even individuals who are building the system for business too.
The software is often some of the best for teens and older kids to pick up and use over time. By setting up some of the template solutions and then dragging and dropping elements using the software, kids can build amazing 3d animated solutions.
#7. Runner-up: Blender
This is our second choice for open source 3-D software that doesn’t take a steep learning curve to develop.
This is a program for teenagers that is fairly appropriate and simple to use. If you are looking for some 3-D modeling software or simple animation it’s tough to find anything that is better than Blender. The program itself was built by a team of extremely dedicated teachers, enthusiasts and artists.
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As an open source project there are new add-ons and improvements being added regularly. It is the perfect program to really start wading into the waters of 3-D animation and it can be especially helpful for picking up some of the nuances of animating in 3-D before investing in software.
#8. Harmony
Toonboom is a company that’s responsible for creating this animation software. It’s perfect for kids to learn on and it’s one of the favored choices for graphic artists. If your children do have some experience using animated tools, this is a perfect segue program that they can use to work their way up to a full license program.
Harmony is a program that’s really designed for teens and for beginner graphic artists. There’s plenty of free videos and webinars that you can use online to make sure that kids can master the software. Some of the courses that are available on Harmony can make sure that kids can learn at their own pace and that they can get a sense of achievement through badges and skills as they work at learning tutorials.
Part3. How to Choose the Right Animation Software for Your Child
Choosing the ideal animation program that you should invest in with your kids does often take a bit of choice and selection. In order to pick out the right animation software for your kids it’s important to look through the different techniques and animation styles to choose what they want.
Understand Different Types of Animation
Some kids may want to animate in 3d, others in 2-D and depending on the type of project that they want to build it is important to invest in a program that can give them the tools they need.
2D Animation
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With 2-D animation animators can easily draw images on translucent pieces of paper one frame at a time to create a simple sequence of still images that will move over time. Usually animators will work to test animations with rough drawings but this can be done much more simply using programs.
As animators create the rough drawings and the sequence of still images, they can refine each image in its details in the program. Traditional animation today now usually requires a digital tablet and some drawing skills and there’s no actual photography that takes place between individual frames. The process of animating is still a fairly lengthy, difficult and costly affair especially if you want to make something professional.
Most 2-D animation todays completed using computer vector animations that can adopt some of the techniques of traditional cell animations but with the ability to manipulate on-screen still images to progress the frame.
3D Animation
A 3-D animation involves creating 3-D models of various objects and characters and then understanding movement and composition. Traditional animation usually involves moving small elements of the image to create fluid movements. 3-D animation is closer to creating 3-D models and then manipulating them like puppets or wireframes to tell a story.
Motion Graphics
Motion graphics are a somewhat different type of animation and they are commonly used for building top bar and side bar ads. Usually we see motion graphics prepared for promotional or commercial purposes but they are becoming increasingly more popular for their ease of sharing too.
Stop Motion
The process of stop motion is done primarily by taking a photo of the object, manipulating it ever so slightly and then taking another photo. Photos are then layered on top of one another to give an illusion of movement in a way that is similar to traditional animations. It uses a series of real-life materials instead of drawings or vectors and it can create some powerful effects with some effort involved from the animators.
Whiteboard / Presentation style
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Whiteboard style presentations are a fairly new solution that’s become quite popular over a few years with the creation of online marketing videos. The presentation files and whiteboard animations have become a fantastic way to showcase information for an idea or project and it’s an excellent way to really keep people engaged for a presentation or sharing ideas.
A Few Other Considerations
Picking out a software that’s going to be best for a child to learn on is not always easy. Almost every child is going to be different so it remains very important to consider the way that they learn and to look into the type of projects that they enjoy doing the most. Some of the top considerations that you may want to think of when choosing animation programs include:
- The age of your child and their abilities
- Their patience levels
- How proficient they are with computers.
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Hey, My name is Paul – nice to e-meet you ? I’m a freelance video editor who has over 4 years experiences of making all types of videos. I founded this website to provide step-by-step and easy-to-follow instructions to first-time editors or beginners like you who want to start their journey in video editing.