Most of the free animation softwares are paid ones, but there are some really great animation software which are free of cost. These animation softwares are easy to use, have many features and are accessible easily. Downloading these software can prove to be useful for beginners as well as expert animators.
Want to create your own animations? A new computer will no longer be necessary once you begin using the free animation software offered online. These software programs are easy to open, edit and close. Anyone can use them, from students working on a school project, to individuals working on a parody video.
Pencil 2D: Best free 2D animation software for beginners
Platforms: Windows, Mac and Linux
The excellent Pencil 2D is a powerful piece of software for vector and bitmap animation, making it the perfect free animation software for beginners.
The user interface of this open-source, free 2D animation software is simple and intuitive, letting you create your compositions in color, with a pencil, pen and brush tools. Anyone with little to no experience using animation programs — even total newbies — will be able to tell at a glance what they can do with this tool.
The tool features layers, a timeline with a simple keyframe manipulation system, onion-skinning, colors, pressure sensitivity, workspace toolbars and panels that you can rearrange to fit your animation needs and workspace.
Animators will appreciate the clean, uncluttered timeline where it is quite easy to add new keyframes on different layers, duplicate, change the frame rate and work quickly to create animations with minimal fuss.
Pencil 2D is true to its name, as it fully supports 2D animation only. But if that’s your thing, you can’t go wrong with this free 2D animation software.
To maximize the potential of Pencil 2D, and to see what’s truly possible even with free animation software, you could always post a project on Freelancer. Pro animators can work magic even with the most basic tools.
And the best part is, this animation software is free!
Pros: Intuitive interface; gentle learning curve; perfect for beginners
Cons: Lacking in advanced features
What users are saying:
“Pencil2D: The easiest and simplest program to do 2D animation. If you’re going to rely on frame by frame hand drawn animations for your game then this is easy and simple enough to do it perfectly. But if you need anything else then it’s super lacking unfortunately.” – u/xTMT, Reddit
“Pencil 2D is free for PC! it has few features, but it’s easy to understand if you’ve never worked with animation software.” – @GaelRice, Twitter
Synfig Studio: Best free 2D animation software (open-source)
Platforms: Windows, Mac and Linux
Synfig Studio is a feature-rich free 2D animation app. Besides the usual drawing tools, keyframes, onion-skinning and shape tools that you find in many other free animation software, Synfig lets you create bitmap and vector animation and also offers some advanced features that require a bit of a learning curve.
Another feature which stands out in this free animation app is that it automatically appends keyframes, so workflow is smooth. The tool works well with pressure-sensitive tablets and touch screen computers, though there have been reports on minor offsets between the Wacom pen cursor and the application screen.
You can also enjoy some pro features that are surprising in a free animation app of this sort. For instance, Synfig offers support for gradient routes with which you can shade your drawings, manipulate vector lines, use a grid, use onion-skinning and choose from a variety of blend methods for your drawing.
Overall, Synfig is a great application for those who have a little experience handling animation software. So give this free 2D animation software a test-spin and let your imagination run wild!
Pros: Powerful software; good for vector animation
Cons: Steep learning curve; lack of tutorials
What users are saying:
“Synfig studio can animate pretty much anything you can think of. However it’s very, very complex to use and will require some time to learn, and it’s hard to draw directly in it.” – @Wtf_Fish_ , Twitter
“Synfig has a lot of polish, nice features like interpolated animations and bones/splines and decent enough basic documentation, but isn’t popular making it difficult to find info and tutorials for.” u/harfyi, Reddit
Blender
Blender is one of the most popular free animation programs that is used by many expert animators, video game specialists, scientists, students, VFX professionals, studio artists and more across the globe. It is open source software under constant development and that helps you to create amazing 3D animations completely free of cost.
Even though it requires a steep learning curve for the beginners and will take a time to get hold of it, if they manage to use even 50% of its functionalities it will produce extraordinary results. Blender offers a host of tools for lighting, modeling, animation and video post-conversion operation and many others. It also provides cross-platform functionality and works with a majority of the operating systems like Linux, Mac OS X and Window.
In order to achieve a smooth performance, its interface makes use of OpenGL. Since Blender is a community-based program licensed under GNU, any professional, video gamers, etc. can make big or small modifications to its code base. This causes the addition of new functionalities, receptive bug fixes, and improved handling.
K-3D
Platforms: Windows, Linux
K-3D is a free 3D animation software specializing in polygonal modeling, an approach to digital graphics that represents and approximates object surfaces using polygons. Designed for artists, the software combines plugins with a visualization pipeline architecture — it adapts to the look and feel of the tools you integrate it with.
Get started with their Wiki tutorials, showing you how to master features like texturing, shadows, and symmetric modeling.
One of its best features? Easy undo/redo functionality, so you can quickly fix a mistake. Most programs only offer the option to undo an action.
With both procedural and parametric workflows, you can make adjustments and see the change immediately. A node-based visualization pipeline means editors can create connections and combinations for different elements within the video. You can work on one side of a model and mirror the other side to see what it looks like welded together.
K-3D is an advanced tool for true creatives.
Conclusion
I am sure that at one time or another you have wished that you could create your own animated videos. Sometimes small business owners do not have huge budgets to work with. A lot of them are used to creating video clips for their websites but they are limited to only being able to use basic options. If you fit in this category then this post is for you.