Animation Apps For Mac Free

Mac

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  • Create, edit, and publish 2D animated movies, cartoons, anime or cut out animations.
  • A proven and well-tested set of features. For everyday use in your projects. Development version. A good opportunity to try latest (experimental) features and bugfixes. Synfig is a free and open-source software licensed under GNU GPL v3. The sources are available on GitHub.
  • Plateform: Windows, Mac. Cartoon Animator 4. Cartoon Animator 4 is an exciting animation program that is easy to use. It is ideal and perfect for beginners and allows you to create animated characters from images, make lip-sync animation from audio. Quality and cool animations.
  • Much more than just rendering – Blender is also a capable free video editor for Mac. Written in C, C, and Python, and available for Mac OS X 10.6 and above, this software has been used for creating animated films, visual effects, art, 3D printed models, video games, engineering simulations, and many more.

Why do you need a free 2D animation software

When we think of animation, we start to see huge dollar signs as it can be a really expensive process. Most animation needs special equipment, software, and extensive specialized knowledge.

With society’s heavy use of media applications and almost everyone having some form of a smart device that can record videos, it’s nice to be able to add animation to them. However, who has the money to fork out for a software that is going to cost a fortune and requires a person to take a course in using it?

Well, never fear, as there’re free 2D animation software packages that are easy to access and download from the internet. Most of these applications are easy to use and even good for beginners. Some of them may not be the best software for 2D animation but they’re most certainly a lot more simple than the professional full version programs.

Animation Apps For Mac Free

5 best software for 2D animation

The review covers some of the top programs that could be useful for simple game applications and adding a cartoon character.

  1. Nima

    There’re not many reviews on Nima but there should be, as it’s a truly amazing 2D animations software. It allows for mesh and bone animation to give your characters a more natural smooth look and flow. It allows a user to create, animate characters easily and use its 'raster graphics' feature that is a very powerful tool.

    Advantages

    • The software is mostly web-based and can run off on all major browsers.
    • It has a very powerful animation system for 2D skeletal character creation. To keep the file size small, these images use a single set that is animated with the bones feature. They’re then synced together for smoother playback.
    • The system allows for dynamic manipulation of your characters as it’s running in real-time.
    • The program offers a host of vertex and mesh deformations to make your characters look more realistic, for example, a bird’s feathers fluffing and character’s hair being blown in the breeze.
    • You can make your character do all sort of jumps, falls, etc. with the software Inverse Kinematics feature.

    Disadvantages

    • It’s a bit too advanced for beginners.
  2. Synfig

    Synfig has more to offer to those who have a bit more 2D animation experience. Especially Linux users as it has a very handy audio editing feature that can be used through 'JACK' integration. The program is quite intense so maybe it’s not the best program for a novice user to start with. It has more advanced features that allow a person to use vector art or bitmap images for cut out animations.

    Advantages

    • Synfig can be used on all three major operating systems – Mac, Linux and Windows, although it seems to have a bit more Linux based features.
    • It has support for almost all of the object library and video file formats.
    • One of the apps top pro’s is its ability to sync various soundtracks with your animations.
    • It’s one of the best packages for 2D animation of videos.

    Disadvantages

    • It’s not user-friendly and not the best software of its kind for beginners.
  3. Opentoonz

    Opentoonz is an animation program that is not only free but also full-featured animation software package. This means that it offers some really powerful 2D animations including those of bones and mesh.

    Advantages

    • It’s a completely free powerful 2D full-featured animation application.
    • You can combine both digital and graphics that are drawn by hand.
    • It has some of the most comprehensive features such as animation, color swatches, Xsheet, etc.
    • It can be used on most operating systems.
    • Compatible with most of the popular object library files and video formats.

    Disadvantages

    • The software is a bit hard to learn and confusing.
    • It doesn’t always create frames as it should or tends to slow down upon creating them.
    • It doesn’t have a user-friendly and easy to use interface, that’s why some features can be a bit hard to find.
  4. TupiTube

    TupiTube is a free open source application, packed with useful features and developed by an open community Tupi. It’s also one of the easiest animation programs on the internet and is recommended for children from eight years and up. Its features have all you’ll need as an amateur animator to get you started such as tweening tools, exposure sheet, previews, modules to export most of the major video formats, “Stopmotion” module and a full objects library.

    Advantages

    • Tupi can be used on all the major operating systems such as Linux, Mac, and Windows.
    • Supports all the most common video formats including MOV, MPEG, and AVI.
    • The objects library includes all the most popular file formats like JPG, SVG, GIF, and PNG.
    • It’s a free open-source based software that makes it an easy solution to get started in 2D animation.

    Disadvantages

    • Experienced 2D animators may find the program limited.
  5. Pencil 2D

    Pencil basis its 2D animation on the more traditional form of hand-drawing cartoon-based techniques. This application is actually one of the best options for beginners who want to learn about 2D animation.

    The program itself is open source based, designed as a vector drawing style program. It can be used on Linux, Mac OS X, and most Windows versions. The software operates on a few different layers allowing you to draw/free-sketch a character in one layer. Then adding color to it in another before adding it to the next to add features such as sound.

    Advantages

    • The application can be used on the Windows, Linux and Mac operating systems.
    • It can be used by a graphic tablet and pen.
    • The quality of the graphics is really great.
    • The application comes in the top as an easy to learn and use 2D animator program.

    Disadvantages

    • Its features are limited when compared to some of the other 2D animation software available for downloading.

Pro animators, students, film makers and game developers will love the ease and speed working in Animation Paper for PC, Mac and Linux.

Quickly test ideas - or train your skills. Work rough - then clean up.
This awesome app will feel effortless, while super efficient and powerful. And so much fun!

Animation
This looks like really intuitive and exciting software. I can’t wait to get my hands on it!Victor Navone, Supervising animator, Pixar
Wow! This looks great! I really like the layout. Just like working on paper at my desk!Aaron Blaise, Director of Brother Bear, Disney
So excited about Niels and his work to create a great 2D animation app! Please support him!Jason Schleifer, Animation Industry Veteran

to become the World’s most Awesome

Software for Hand Drawn Animation

Most important part of your animation production pipeline.

Super responsive interface - prompt and realtime workflow.

Quickly gets you in the zone. Non intrusive and cleverly built.

The way 'traditional' animation is supposed to be done today.

Free

Uncluttered, intuitive - and what the pro needs. No more. No less.

Video Tour

Watch the original concept for Animation Paper - a tour of the early interface design.

Recommend watching in full screen and HD


For more current viewing, watch our tutorial-videos for the pre-release right here on Youtube.
  • Super fast responsiveness – while drawing, while flipping, while everything
  • High quality lines – no degradation when transformed or resolution is changed
  • Small to large format frames
  • Realtime smooth rotation and zooming of the view
  • Light table (onion skinning – advanced and customizable)
  • X-Sheet – easy, yet powerful timing and reuse (also scribbled notes and sound wave display)
  • Layers (each layer colorcoded black, blue, red, green or custom)
  • Lasso (easily reposition/rotate/scale drawings or parts of drawings)
  • Clean up (stabilised lines)
  • Paint (efficient coloring and post paint changes)
  • Many alternative ways of flipping (keys, wheel, return flip, etc)
  • Customizable Tool Bar and Speed Dial for reaching favorite functions with a flick
  • Realtime full frame reference on 2nd monitor
  • Import video or frame-stacks for rotoscoping etc
  • Export mp4, mov or frame-stacks as png, svg, etc - including alpha and X-Sheet timing data
  • For Windows PC, Mac OS and Linux (Android & iPad Pro with Pencil planned)

Can't wait? Help beta testing!

Animation Apps For Mac Free

Get Animation Paper (for PC or Mac) months before our official launch - for free!

Animation Apps For Mac Free Download

Download this latest alpha version now - and get animating right away! The first time you run Animation Paper, you will be asked to register (your email), and then you'll be all set. Happy animating!

Thanks a lot for testing this already very robust version. We appreciate any comments or suggestions you might have about Animation Paper. When the final version is finished months from now, you'll get an offer to buy Animation Paper (no purchase required) for only $79 USD for the full license. No subscription. Thank you!

Dear Animators,
My name is Niels Krogh Mortensen - I'm the creator of Animation Paper.
For the past 30 years I have worked as a character animator, graphic artist, creative software developer, game designer, animation producer and animation director.
2 decades ago I founded the predecessor, Plastic Animation Paper (PAP), which became an acclaimed and very popular 2D animation tool, that helped many take the leap from good old analogue into digital.
Today, however, PAP is outdated. I'm especially embarrassed about its GUI! - though it amazingly still runs reasonably well on modern computers.
But no doubt, it needs a serious overhaul! Re-thought from scratch and built on our proven core values - and including brilliant ideas from you, our community - Animation Paper is now brought to life!
I am humbled and grateful for all your support and encouragement. Now, the world's most awesome software for hand drawn animation is coming your way!

Free Mac Animation Software

Good luck wishes from the one and only Bill Plympton!

Animation Software Download Mac

hand drawn animation - reborn.

the fun and ease are back!

Animation from short film Mops & Ollie by Christian Kuntz. Thanks Christian!

Animation Apps For Mac Free Full

Go to the blog section for more detail, the thoughts behind Animation Paper and the latest news. Make sure to post your comments or questions too.