With all the new technology on the market today, you might be wondering what is the best motion graphics software available? There are different softwares available for every job size. Whether you are a designer new to video or have been in the industry for years, there is a program for you.
When it comes to designing motion graphics, most designers rely on motion graphic design software. Whilst there are plenty of free options out there, here we run through some of the best free motion graphics software available. Motion graphics can be a great way to grab attention and tell a story. So if you’re looking for free motion graphics software to enhance your next video or other product, then this is the list for you.
AUDACITY
Sound is an important part of motion graphics so you need audio editing software to create, modify and add audio effects on it. Audacity is a free easy to use multi-track audio editor and recorder for windows, mac os, Linux, and other operating systems.
You can use audacity to record live audio. Audacity can record computer playback on any windows vista or later machine. It lets you edit wave, iflack, mp2, mp3 sound files. Further, you can cut, copy, splice, or mix sounds together with numerous effects including changing the speed or pitch of a recording. You can also write your own plugin and more. All you need to do is go to the website and download the software from the link provided there.
NATRON MOTION GRAPHICS SOFTWARE
A newbie in this market, Natron is a powerful digital compositor that can handle all of your 2d, 2.5d, or motion graphics needs. Its robust audio file formats and open fx architecture is what makes Natron one of the most flexible open-source compositors for the visual effects community.
Natron’s interface and functionality are the same across all platforms such as macOS, Windows, and Linux. Natron has powerful keying roto or roto paint 2d tracking tools that are stable for all current film production projects that require visual effects.
It has some strong keying or mat generation tools. They have been developed from the main ofx software developers and a plethora of tools from the open-source plug-in developing community.
K3-D
Pros:
- Intuitive interface to make 3D effects
- Can always go back to undo operations
- Totally free-to-use
One of the best 3D animation software, K-3D features a procedural engine plugin for its content. It is a free 3D animation software that supports polygonal modeling. A visual pipeline architecture is combined with the flexible plugins that make the K3-D software a powerful and versatile tool. The features include:
Features:
- Consistent and intuitive
- Consist of basic tools for animation, patches, curves, and NURVS
- Parametric workflow
- Can be run on Windows, OS X, Linux, and FreeBSD
DAZ 3D
So you have downloaded blender but don’t know where to get amazing models or pre-made environments. You can try das 3d and download the bridge for Blender. A bridge is a cross-platform port that converts 3d assets. In this case, amazing DAZ content and brings it to another software complete with rigging, textures, and other studio modifications. Get DAZ studio for free, the premiere 3d creation and rendering software.
DAZ studio unlocks your imagination so you can build your own universe. Powerful for professionals easy enough for beginners and available for free. The DAZ Studio software comes with a starter package and a free 3d model so you can start creating. Though the software is free and you will get lots of free-to-use models as well. But for advanced models and other stuff, you need to buy from the online marketplace. But for first-timers, it is worth trying. So let’s get into the universe of editing and compositing.
FilmoraPro
If you want to have more controls on 3D animation videos, here we recommend using FilmoraPro.
You just need to build a white plane to easily start making 3D animation with keyframes. FilmoraPro offers six different keyframe types to let your animation become smooth and natural.
Besides, auto color correction and audio mixer will raise up your 3D animation video to a new level. You can also apply light flares effects to make 3D animation amazing. Now, free download it to have a try!
Blender
There are many free 3D animation software out there, but it’s hard to look past Blender as the best. This open source 3D animation software can be used for every stage of the 3D pipeline, from modeling, rigging, animation, and simulation to rendering, compositing, motion tracking and video editing. It also supports 2D animation.
Blender can be used for a wide range of applications, including advertisements, animated feature films, TV series, video games, visual effects, architecture and art.
As a 3D animation movie software it offers a number of high-quality tools, such as envelope, skeleton and automatic skilling, B-spline interpolated bones, custom bone shapes for fast inputs, unwrapping, texturing, fluid and smoke simulation, and sound synchronization.
Blender also offers excellent rigging tools that you can use to design a skeleton and then define and location and mobility of limbs and their relationship to one another when creating a framework for your 3D character. You can even define the influence each of the bones has on the limbs in this vicinity. You can do this manually or automatically with the help of commercial plugins.
Overall, it’s a great film 3D animation software tool, and great for developing moving 3D models for video games and other uses.
This software is also a good choice for directly drawing in 2D and 3D, with excellent workflow freedom. You can combine 2D and 3D right in the viewpoint, while the software has full animation support with Onion Skinning and layers and colors for stroke and fill.
Blender also supports input from motion capturing software, and you can even use facial motion capture using markers painted onto actors’ faces. It offers excellent clothing simulation that can be manipulated by the armature for added realism. You can also combine live-action footage with animation seamlessly with this software.
With its flexible python-controlled interface, you can easily customize the interface layout and colors and create your own tools and addons. Blender may be a free 3D animation software, but it’s still one of the very best around and is a viable alternative to top paid software like Maya.
After Effects
After Effects is a motion graphics and digital visual effects application developed by Adobe. This tool helps you to easily remove elements in the film.
Features:
- This tool provides more than 100 options for selecting effects.
- You can preview your playback using GPU (Graphics Processing Unit).
- It allows you to animate titles.
- You can combine images and videos to create animation.
- This tool provides more than 100 options for selecting effects.
- You can remove an object from a video clip.
3ds Max
- Software3ds Max
- ApplicationMotion Capture, Keyframe Animation
- OSWindows
- Price$1,700/year
- Formatsstl, 3ds, ai, abc, ase, asm, catproduct, catpart, dem, dwg, dxf, dwf, flt, iges, ipt, jt, nx, obj, prj, prt, rvt, sat, skp, sldprt, sldasm, stp, vrml, w3d xml
3ds Max is one of the major commercial 3D animation software suites on the market. Its comprehensive feature set makes it a popular choice for game development, visual effects production, and architectural visualization.
This 3D animation software features particle and light simulation, a cloth-simulation engine, and even brings its scripting language to the table (MAXScript). In terms of 3D modeling, it is capable of creating parametric and organic objects with polygon, subdivision surface, and spline-based modeling features. Among the other techniques is the ability to create models from point cloud data.
The 3D animation capabilities of 3ds Max are comprehensive. It features two character animation tools. “character studio” that is designed to work best for bipedal characters. “CAT” can rig and animate non-humanoid characters. This 3D animation software also comes with a tool that allows setting up and controlling scenes with large crowds of people, dubbed “Populate.”
Take full control over your 3D animation with “Motion Mixer,” a tool that takes its cue from audio editing. It displays separate tracks for motion data from each body part that can be edited for speed, transitioned, looped, and more. Among the other tools in this 3D animation software are motion paths that let you modify animations directly in the trajectory as splines, giving you instant feedback in the viewport.
Recently, Autodesk has added two new features to 3ds Max – baking to texture and a weighted normals modifier. The former approximate surface effects and allows for objects to be rendered in real-time without the need to recalculate other elements such as the lighting and shadows. As for the latter, that improves shading on objects.
Conclusion:
Motion graphic design software animation has been around for a long time now. There are new motion graphics software being made all the time, but there are some free motion graphic software that’s been around for years (like Anime Studio). And if you want to know about the best motion graphic design software for beginners than learning about these programs will help you.