Free Animation Software

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Cartoon Animator 4 (formerly known as CrazyTalk Animator) is a 2D animation software designed for both ability of entry and productivity. You can turn images to animated characters, control characters with your expressions, generate lipsync animation from audio, accomplish 3d parallax scenes, produce 2D visual effects, access content resources, and wield a comprehensive photoshop pipeline to. Another browser animation software that is free to use, Powtoon is intended for beginners but can also be used by more advanced animators. It can be used to make dynamic video presentations. Used by brands such as Microsoft, IBM, Google, Adobe, Coca Cola, eBay, Cisco, and Starbucks, Powtoon is a trusted software that can be used to develop. May 14, 2020 Other Free Software. There are a few other free software apps that may be helpful in your animation journey. Take Inkscape, for example, which is an open-source illustration application. It allows you to create vector graphics, which can be ideal for animated character designs. Sep 24, 2019 Free 3D animation software for beginners. Available Synfig Studio offers professional edition for developing high quality animation content. It is more friendly for those with the prior knowledge of animation making software for pc. Windows, Linux, and macOS X Pencil2D: Pencil2D is a free animation software for beginners.

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Let’s look at the best FREE animation software that you can download and start using today. Featuring 10+ software options!

Anyone interested in diving into animation may be shocked to see just how many free software options are available these days. And these aren’t cookie-cutter programs — many of these free applications are frequently used by animation-industry pros!

SketchBook’s free animation program is easy to use, even without the tutorial. Image via SketchBook.

Let’s look at the selling points of each free animation program, where to download them, and where to find some beginner tutorials.

Pencil2D

Pencil2D is a simple, user-friendly 2D animation app, widely considered to be a perfect starter program for beginners and ideal for frame-by-frame animations.

Pencil2D is a free, open-source animation program — even for commercial use. It supports both bitmap and vector graphics, and has features like onion-skinning.

Onion-skinning allows you to keep track of each frame in the drawing process. Image via Blender.

FYI, onion-skinning refers to the ability to see previous frames of your animation while you create the next frame. Check out the Pencil2D Tutorials page to get started.

Krita

Krita is probably one of the most highly-regarded free animation applications. Ideal for hand-drawn animation, Krita includes over 100 pre-loaded brushes, each with a wide variety of effects.

Krita is great for hand-drawn animations, has built-in brush stabilizers, and a wide variety of effects. Image via Krita.

Krita also has built-in brush stabilizers that can smooth out the effects of shaky hands, making it great for tablet use. Really, this is just the tip of the iceberg of what Krita has to offer. Want to learn more? Check out this amazing starter tutorial from kdsketch!

SketchBook

SketchBook was previously a paid animation app from Autodesk, but now it’s completely free! Similar to Pencil2D, SketchBook is a perfect starter program. It has a beautiful user interface that’s easy to pick up and understand — even without a tutorial. The brushes also feel really natural when you’re drawing on the canvas.

SketchBook’s user interface has a wonderful layout and is user-friendly. Image via SketchBook.

SketchBook was the first free animation app I tried out, and I wasn’t disappointed. As a filmmaker, I could see myself using it to create write-on text or animation arrows. It also has features like onion-skinning and allows you to rearrange the UI to suit your needs. Check out Autodesk’s Sketckbook Starter Tutorial playlist to learn more.

Blender

Blender’s recently overhauled drawing tool — known as Grease Pencil — allows you to draw in a 3D environment. It’s perfect for creating traditional 2D animation, cut-out animation, and hand-drawn motion graphics.

This tool allows you to draw in a 3D environment, create hand-drawn motion graphics, as well as traditional 2D animation. Image via Blender.

If you’re already familiar with Blender’s 3D tool set, then you should be able to dive right in. If you’re totally new to Blender, check out this beginner Grease Pencil tutorial by Dedouze.

OpenToonz

OpenToonz is another popular 2D animation application, and it’s widely accepted as a free substitute for apps like Adobe Animate. It may have more of a learning curve than other beginner apps, but it has a host of professional features — onion-skinning, bone rigging, node-based editing options, and more. OpenToonz also supports bitmap and vector images.

For a closer look, check out this beginner OpenToonz tutorial by NobleFrugal Studio.

Synfig Studio

Synfig Studio is an animation app similar in depth to OpenToonz and Adobe Animate. While the user interface looks a bit sterile and comes with a bit of a learning curve, it does have many advanced features.

One of those advanced features is vector tweening, which allows layers to automatically transform into other shapes. The software also includes layers, filters, and bone-rigging, and it supports both bitmap and vector images.

Other Free Software

There are a few other free software apps that may be helpful in your animation journey. Take Inkscape, for example, which is an open-source illustration application. It allows you to create vector graphics, which can be ideal for animated character designs.

Inkscape is a perfect tool when creating character designs for animation. Image via Inkscape.

Want a more advanced video editor that lets you cut animation clips together or add post-effects? Check out DaVinci Resolve and HitFilm Express. Both of these free video editing apps include a plethora of effects.

Cover image via Krita.

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.

Free Animation Software For Beginners

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

Animation Programs For Beginners

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.

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

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.

Free Animation Software For Windows 10

Free animation software for beginners

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.

Modeling

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

Free Animation Software 2d

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

Free Animation Software For Beginners

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

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.