Software is one the most important tools for any artist, designer, or animation filmmaker to have. In previous posts of this column I’ve mentioned some free software applications of the highest quality. In this post I will present a selection of free software of use to animators and cartoon illustrators.
Are you a beginner and would like to start cartoon animation of your own? Wondering where and how to get started? Everything is possible of course, but you would need time, talent and resources. Today, we will tell you about some free soft-wares that can turn your imagination into reality.
Pencil 2D Animation
Of all Best Free Animation Software Download for Windows, Pencil 2D is preferred the most because it can handle Bitmap as well as Vector graphics. It is an open source and multi-platform program. This tool allows you creating usual hand-painted animations by the use of Vector graphics and Bitmap together. The interface of this app is quite simple but is loaded with almost all the features you require to create animations.
This is a lightweight app and with its minimalistic design, beginners can easily learn and create animations. It not only features vector and raster workflows but also allows you to easily switch between them. A user can paint as well as sketch the way he/she wants.
A unique quality of Pencil 2D is that you can use it across different platforms. The developers of this software consistently work towards improving its quality and with every new update, you get a stable and improved version of this amazing program.
Seamless3d
This is the last one in our Best Free Animation Software Download for Windows list. This open-source program is one of the most preferred free animation tools by people who want to make animated videos, specialized images, and 3D characters. Seamless 3D has some unique features and one of them is the infinite number of redo and undo options. It provides you with complete flexibility to improve mistakes.
With this program, you get the opportunity for seamless and partitioned texture mapping. With its special tree type interface, Seamless3d is the easiest to operate three-dimensional animations. This program provides the best results when used by artists. The users having passion and patience to learn animation can gain creative freedom with the help of this free animation software.
There are a lot of interesting features such as WYSIWYG, FFmpeg support, NSPE (Nurbs Surface Poly Editing), Scripting, Intuitive animation bar, and many more. The best thing with this software is that its website contains tutorials that can help you learn all the interesting concepts of this 3d modeling software.
From numerous options, these are the best 16 2D and 3D Best Free Animation Software Download for Windows Laptop or PC. Most of these programs have the capacity to help you create an animation in the easiest possible way. Before downloading and installing any of them, make sure that it has all your desired features and is compatible with your version of Windows. Now, it all depends upon your mind how much creativity it develops to produce wonderful animations.
Tupi
Tupi is a great 2D animation software. It doesn’t work that great with 3D animations so you should opt out of this if you’re looking for that. Tupi is great to do academic work. It supports vector illustrations and can import raster images.
Tupi also supports tweeting positions, scale, shear, and rotations. Tupi is not only meant for Mac but also for windows. It’s not that difficult to master Tupi and the interface is user-friendly. You can check the users’ guide on youtube for instructions on how to operate it.
Runner-up, Best 2D Animation Software for Mac: Adobe Animate
Adobe is one of the successors to perhaps one of the most popular 2-D animation software is available. At the core of Animate are the flash tools that have been working to create high-quality animations since the early days of the Internet. Today the program uses vector-based publishing to produce intuitive and inexpensive animation results.
Although it may not have all of the professional animation tools that you would find in some major production suites, it’s possible to get very professional looking results.
Best 3D Animation Software for Mac: Maya
Autodesk Maya remains one of the best 3-D modeling software programs that’s designed for Mac, Windows and Linux. The program itself has migrated many of the tools away from Autodesk Mud and now has features that you would normally find in several different pieces of software for creating highly detailed 3-D models. Autodesk Maya is a 3-D modeling software that is designed mostly for professional artists but with the templates that are available for download and the massive amount of tutorials online, it is possible to see quite a difference with this software when you are working with it over time.
Best for Making Stop Motion Videos: Dragonframe
Dragonframe remains one of the best stop motion software solutions for mac today. It’s one of the top choices for many of the world’s largest studios like Laika and Aardman. It can produce high-quality masterpieces in stop motion animation and it is a perfectly suited set of professional tools. The program allows for easy capture of a number of precise movements and you can also compose in light various angles using the camera controls on board. Editing images as well as performing advanced image review techniques can all be done through the program as well.
The process of inserting and editing audio can be done according to a characters needs and based off of the animation that you want to create. The advantage to using some of the precise movements and controls in this program is that you can have a wide array of improvements at your fingertips for professional products.
Conclusion
If you love watching cartoons, you have to have a lot of time on your hands. An average cartoon can take months to produce from start to finish, and that’s with the help of a team of animators. Add in the cost of buying software and all those software updates, owning a copy of Adobe Flash is expensive. Then again, you may not have the cash for Adobe products.