Updated: Oct 17, 2023 By: Dessign Team
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Are you looking for the best 2D animation software, free or premium? We put together a collection of the best and easiest 2d animation software available, both free and paid. In addition, you can try using and learning the top 2d software in the industry.
Two-dimensional software animation lets you create your character and background in a flat space where you can move your character in motion to create storyboard movements.
If you need some free illustrations for inspiration or use to create your 2d animation, we have a great place to find them. Also, if you want to try some of the best 3D animation software, we put the list of free and paid ones.
If you need to compress your animation, we have a collection of the best free video compressors for MAC and Windows, so you can compress your video and upload it on the web.
If you looking for the best free graphic design software for creating beautiful designs.
If you need to edit your 2D animations, we have a great post about the best free video editing software to help you make your animation like a pro.
Best 2D Animation Software for Beginners to Advanced Animators both free and premium for Windows, macOS, Linux
1. Reallusion – Cartoon Animator 4
CrazyTalk Animator (CTA) is the world's most accessible 2D animation software that enables all levels of users to create professional animations with the least amount of effort.
With CTA3, anyone can instantly bring an image, logo, or prop to life by applying bouncy Elastic Motion effects or one of many motion templates available. For the character part, CTA3 is built with 2D character templates, valuable motion libraries, a powerful
2D bone rig editor, facial puppets, and audio lip-syncing tools to give users unparalleled control when animating 2D cartoon maker software talking characters for videos, web, games, apps, and presentations. Cartoon Animator 4 (formerly known as CrazyTalk Animator) is a 2D animation software designed for both abilities of entry and productivity.
You can turn images into animated characters, control characters with your expressions, generate lip-sync animation from audio, accomplish 3D parallax scenes, produce 2D visual effects, access content resources, and wield a comprehensive photoshop pipeline to rapidly customize characters and create content.
2. Adobe Character Animator
Character Animator uses your expressions and movements to animate characters in real-time. It’s so fast, and you can live stream while you work to wow audiences every step of the way.
Turn any art into an animated character with your webcam, powered by Adobe Sensei AI. Import art from Illustrator and Photoshop, or start with built-in character templates.
Control gestures like waving with your keyboard or MIDI device. Movements can be saved as buttons, making them easier to remember than key commands. Also, check Adobe 2d Animation Software
3. Adobe Animate
Adobe Animate Design interactive animations for games, TV shows, and the web. Bring cartoons and banner ads to life. Create animated doodles and avatars. And add action to eLearning content and infographics.
With Animate, you can quickly publish to multiple platforms in just about any format and reach viewers on any screen.
Reach your audience on desktop, mobile, and TV by exporting your animations to multiple platforms, including HTML5 Canvas, WebGL, Flash/Adobe AIR, and custom platforms like SVG.
You can include code inside your projects and even add actions without coding.
4. Sketchbook
Sketchbook, we believe creativity starts with an idea. From quick conceptual sketches to fully finished artwork, sketching is at the heart of the creative process. You never know when a great idea will strike, so access to fast and powerful innovative sketching tools is an invaluable part of any creative process.
Sketchbook has a full complement of brush types: pencils, markers, airbrushes, paint, smear, and more. Brushes are highly customizable, so you can create just the look you want.
Sketchbook is highly responsive to a stylus; the experience feels natural, like drawing on paper. As you draw, Sketchbook provides a faithful representation of your strokes with pressure and tilt, so you see the depth and directionality your hand intended.
5. Harmony ToonBoom
ToonBoom Harmony Regarding digital production, Toon Boom Harmony is the gold standard by which all 2D animation software is judged. Harmony is the most creative yet, efficient software ever created for animation – that's why it's the industry standard.
6. Autodesk 2D Drawing and Drafting
2D drafting and drawing is the process of creating and editing technical drawings and annotating designs. For example, drafters use computer-aided design (CAD) software to develop floor plans, building permit drawings, building inspection plans, and landscaping layouts.
CAD software for 2D drafting can be used to draft designs more quickly and precisely without using stencils and technical drawing instruments. 2D CAD software allows users to document and annotate drawings with text, dimensions, leaders, and tables.
7. Powtoon
Powtoon is Better than Video! Engage, explain and sell with impact using just a short, simple PowToon. They’re proven more effective than any other form of video or text communication in grabbing attention in the workplace.
8. Synfig Studio
Synfig supports various layers of geometric, gradients, filters, distortions, transformations, fractals,s, and a few others.
Synfig has basic features for syncing your animation with soundtrack using Sound Layer.
Linux users can get all benefits of full-featured audio editors through the JACK integration. Synig is also available on GitHub as free open source code.
9. Animaker
Animaker a platform for beginners, non-designers & professionals to create Animation
and Live-Action videos for every moment of our life.
Animakers helped over 5M people create awesome videos by themselves! And Animaker is trusted by some of the world's leading brands.
10. CelAction 2D
CelAction2D is professional 2D animation software for films, TV series, and commercials. It is the software of choice for many leading animators and represents the state-of-the-art in high quality, high volume production.
Using vectors and bitmaps, character models can be rigged into a skeleton so that animation can be changed and reused easily.
The movement of the skeleton can also be automatically in-between in various ways, making animation faster than ever before.
11. FlipBook
FlipBook Makes Animation Easier To Learn because it’s so easy to use, but it’s also designed to help you learn the principles of animation.
It’s easy because things work the way you expect them to. Draw with a pencil, paint with a paintbrush or fill with a bucket. Then, click on Play to watch it play. Want to add sound? Drag a sound file onto the xsheet.
You don’t have to spend hours reading a manual or going through weeks of trial and error to figure out how it works. Instead, you just do what makes sense, and it will work.
And if you ever need help, just check out the FlipBook page on our website for all the feature tutorial videos.
12. Moho Pro
Moho Pro has Everything you need to make unique, professional animation. Moho Pro 12 (formerly Anime Studio Pro) offers the most powerful 2D rigging system and mixes it with traditional animation tools, making professional results more accessible and faster.
13. Brash Monkey
Brash Monkey Use your Spriter animation files directly in your games to benefit from silky smooth tweened animations that take a fraction of the memory.
Suddenly customizable player characters and smoothly animated giant on-screen bosses are a breeze.
14. Pencil 2D
Pencil2D uses a bitmap/vector drawing interface to produce simple 2D graphics as well as animation. The pencil is written in C++ and is Qt-based, as well as licensed under the GNU General Public License.
15. TV Paint Animation
TVPaint Animation is a 2D software based on bitmap technology. Thanks to this technology, you can animate natural renderings (gouache, watercolor, oil painting, crayon, pen…) traditionally (image by image). TVPaint Animation doesn't impose a graphical style or a workflow.
Feel free to mix animation on paper and digital animation, do rotoscopy, use different software, or simply make your project with TVPaint Animation entirely.
16. Krita
Krita is a professional FREE and open-source painting program. It is made by artists that want to see affordable art tools for everyone.
An intuitive user interface that stays out of your way. The dockers and panels can be moved and customized for your specific workflow. Once you have your setup, you can save it as your workspace. You can also create your shortcuts for commonly used tools.
Built-in vector tools help you create comic panels. Select a word bubble template from the vector library and drag it on your canvas.
Change the anchor points to create your shapes and libraries. Add text to your artwork as well with the text tool. Krita uses SVG to manage its vector format.
17. Stop Motion Studio
Want to create movies like Wallace and Gromit or those groovy Lego shorts on YouTube? Stop Motion Studio is a fantastic app for creating a terrific stop-action film with many unique features. Like the frame-by-frame editor, the never get lost timeline, and the excellent sound editor.
Stop Motion Studio it's simple to use, it's deceptively powerful, and it's tremendous fun. Available for iPhone, iPad, and macOS as well as Android and Windows.
18. DP Animation Maker
DP Animation Maker helps you make animated videos for lots of stuff. Some of the most popular items people create with the software, whether for business or personal use.
The good news is that you don't have to be a tech guru to use this software. Thanks to our easy-to-understand interface, no special skills are required. Anyone can use it.
But tech-savvy graphic artists benefit, too. That's because DP Animation Maker takes the guesswork out of the time-consuming programming aspect of the animation process. As a result, artists can concentrate on image design and artwork instead.
No matter your level of tech sophistication, our process is painless. Open an image, select an effect, add moving objects, export to your preferred format, and voilà — you're ready to share your animation with the world. It's that fast. With the press of a button, you can adjust the motion, speed, and other vital elements of any moving object. Ready-to-use, animated images are available within minutes.
