Below, we’ll highlight 12 of the best free animation software. This all software is designed to be easy-to-use for both seasoned animators. In this post about best animation software, you will find premium, free and open source products, as well as online tools for animating. Check out this selection of animation software including some of the most popular and preferred products on the market, as well as lesser known but still very good animation tools available today.
A selection of the best animation software available on the market right now and preferred by all levels of users. Animation is the art of bringing life to an otherwise inanimate objects, or illustrated / 3D generated characters.
10 Best Animation Software
1. Adobe Character Animator
You can create eye-opening animation. In eye-opening time. Character Animator uses your expressions and movements to animate characters in real time. It’s so fast, you can live stream while you work, to wow audiences every step of the way.
Pricing plans:
- Free trial – 7 days
- Creative Cloud All Apps – $52.99/month billed annually
- Students and teachers – $19.99/month billed annually
- Business – from $33.99/month billed annually
2. Cartoon Animator 4
Cartoon Animator 4 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 lip-sync animation from audio, and more.
Pricing:
- Pro Edition – $99
- Pipeline Edition – $199
- Special bundle discounts
- Free trial – 30 days
3. Stop Motion Studio
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. Like the frame-by-frame editor, the never get lost timeline and the sound editor.
Pricing:
- for iOS – $4.99
- for Mac – $9.99
- for Android – $4.99
- for Windows – $1.99
4. DigiCel FlipBook
FlipBook is undeniably the easiest 2D animation software. But it is still powerful enough to do everything most animators will ever need. And you’ll be surprised how fast it can do it. In fact, FlipBook is so fast that you can make changes while a scene is looping and you will see your changes the next time the loop starts over.
Pricing:
- Free version with a watermark
- FlipBook Lite: $19.99
- FlipBook Studio: $69.99
- FlipBook Pro: $169.99
- FlipBook ProHD: $199.99
5. Toon Boom Harmony
Create art and emotion in every style with one powerful end-to-end animation software. Whether you prefer paperless or cutout animation, Harmony 20 is helping to set the trends for award winning animation that is hitting the market by storm. The latest in lighting, shading, special effects and others give more life to your features and series.
Pricing:
- Harmony Essentials: EUR €400/purchase or EUR €16 / month (when billed annually)
- Harmony Advanced: EUR €1,030/purchase or EUR €41 / month (when billed annually)
- Harmony Premium: EUR €2,085/purchase or EUR €78 / month (when billed annually)
- Free trial: 21 days.
6. Blender
Open Source 3D creation. Free to use for any purpose.
Blender is the free and open source 3D creation suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline—modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, video editing and 2D animation pipeline.
7. Pencil2D
Software is completely free and open source.
Lightweight and easy to use so you can focus on animating and not what button to hit next. Seamlessly switch between raster and vector workflows, allowing you to sketch, ink & paint on the go. Pencil2D is cross-platform and runs on Windows, macOS, Linux & FreeBSD.
8. Synfig Studio
Transform any vector shape into another. Synfig gives you powerful tools for full control on your vector artwork. Just set the key positions and in between frames will be calculated automatically. Synfig provides 50+ layers to create artwork and animation of any complexity.
9. Animaker
A platform for beginners, non-designers & professionals to create Animation and Live-Action videos for every moment of our life. Animaker’s helped over 7M people create awesome videos by themselves. And is trusted by some of the world’s leading brands.
Pricing plans:
- Free
- Personal – $12 per month billed annually
- Startup – $19 per month billed annually
- Business – $39 per month billed annually
- Enterprise – $99 per month billed annually
10. Vyond
Vyond’s online animation software allows your business to easily create professional animated videos for all industries in job roles like marketing, training, and eLearning. Vyond is changing the way the world communicates, one video at a time.
Pricing plans:
- Free trial – 14 days
- Personal – US $49/month or US $299/year
- Business – US $89/month or US $649/year
- Enterprise – US $159/month or US $999/year