Do you know what is best graphics animation software? Did you ever want to learn something? Perhaps you’ve seen a truly interesting animated movie and wanted to create one yourself, but you didn’t know how. Do not worry – in this article, a specialised self-taught blogger will start from scratch, teach you what animation is about in general, how to select good software for creating animations and finally help give you tips on the basics of animation creation. This article is for anyone who’s interested in learning about the best free graphics animation software or wants to find out how to get started with it. If you are ready to learn more just keep reading.
Are you looking for graphics animation software? Or animation software free download? Well, lucky for you, we’ve compiled a list of the top best graphics animation software below. We’ve also written an accompanying article with details about how each piece of software operates, as well as what to look for when considering these items.
Visme
Visme is a cloud-based, online design tool that lets anyone create animated social media images, infographics, presentations, ads, banners and other visuals.
It comes packed with animation and interactivity features to help you create eye-catching designs that do much more than just static images.
Visme’s animation software lets you access thousands of premade templates, a library of free stock photos and videos, customizable pre-animated characters, illustrations and gestures, and much more.
Features:
- Friendly and intuitive drag-and-drop editor.
- Thousands of animated templates in various categories.
- Customizable pre-animated assets: Characters, illustrations and gestures.
- Animation timeline feature to customize scenes and sync audio.
- 14+ different types of animated charts, graphs and maps.
- Advanced custom animation that can be applied to any object.
- Interactive links, call-to-action buttons and hover effects.
- Searchable libraries of free stock photos, videos, icons and shapes.
- Import your own images, videos and fonts.
- Embed videos and other online content into your designs.
- Team collaboration features: Share your projects.
- Brand kit: Save your brand colors, fonts and logos for later use.
- Insightful analytics: Access graphs and statistics for project views.
- Offline animated download formats: GIF, MP4 video and HTML5.
- Publish and share online: Use a link or generate an embed code.
Pricing: Free plan with limited features. Paid plans start from $12/month per user.
Pros: All-in-one design tool packed with animation and interactivity features, great for both non-designers and designers, millions of free graphic assets inside the editor.
Cons: A variety of design and customizability options can lead to a slightly steep learning curve.
Ideal for: Marketers, corporate teams, teachers, trainers, personal use.
Adobe Animate
Adobe Animate is a new and improved version of Adobe Flash Professional. The software lets you create interactive vector graphics and 2D animations for videos, ads, games, television and more. You can animate characters, avatars, shapes and other assets using timeline controls.
Features:
- Vector brushes with size, smoothness, pressure and velocity settings.
- Intuitive timeline controls with advanced animation settings.
- Virtual camera feature that lets you add pan, zoom and other effects.
- Synchronize audio with your animations and create audio loops.
- Typekit integration gives you access to premium web fonts.
- Export in Flash, HTML5 Canvas, WebGL, SVG and more.
Pricing: Starts from $20.99/month.
Pros: Extensive export and sharing options to publish your animations in virtually any format for any platform.
Cons: Just like any other Adobe software, Animate has a steep learning curve, especially for beginners.
Ideal for: Game designers, YouTubers, cartoon makers.
Adobe Character Animator
Adobe Character Animator is another one of Adobe’s animation software stack. But unlike Adobe Animate, Character Animator lets you use motion capture to create live animations of your 2D characters. For example, you can create a character in Illustrator or Photoshop, import it into Character Animator, set it up with tags and then animate it using your own facial movements using your webcam.
Features:
- Real-time motion capture and automatic facial tracking.
- Download characters from Creative Cloud Market.
- Integration with Photoshop and Illustrator.
- Move the character’s limbs with your mouse.
- Timeline panel for recording and editing scenes.
Pricing: Included in the Creative Cloud All-Apps Plan that costs $39.99/month.
Pros: Easy to replicate real-life movements and expressions with facial tracking. Plenty of import and export options.
Cons: This software is available as part of the all apps pack, not as a standalone product. Also, you need to have a webcam and microphone to use the motion capture feature.
Ideal for: Bloggers, marketers, entertainers, educators.
Maya
Initially established in 1998, Maya is an Academy Award-winning (2003) 3D computer graphics and animation software. Currently owned by Autodesk, it is especially useful for the creation of interactive 3D applications like motion pictures, video games, TV series, special effects, and more.
It is, without any doubt, one of the best software tools on the market providing 3D animation, and has been acclaimed for its use in notable films like ‘Lord of the Rings,’ ‘Spiderman,’ ‘Star Wars,’ and ‘Ice Age.’
The best part is that it is compatible with all operating systems including Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Best for:
Maya is one of the best animation software tools for creating animation pictures, video games, and adding 3D effects in motion pictures. If you require high-quality visual effects, then Maya has you covered.
Advanced Features:
- Clip matching feature
- Bifrost liquid creation feature that creates simulations of photorealistic movies
- Excellent Adobe character animator
- Allows deep adaptive liquid simulations
- In-built accelerated modeling workflows
- Paint effect feature that allows you to make 3D shapes by freehand drawing tools and drawing software
- Enhanced viewport 2.0 and DX11Shader rendering engine (blur refFlections, shader effects, imparting translucency)
- Free-form approach to 3D modeling that allows you to add as many layers as you want
- Arnold integration – this RenderView feature can be used to view scene changes in real-time
- Create your own scripts and plugins for better customization (in Maya-embedded Language or python scripting)
- Voice-o-matic provides lip-syncing technology, motion capture, and walk cycles
Pros:
- Complex hand-made animation tasks made extremely easy
- Efficient color management (useful Boolean operations on polygon geometry)
- Create realistic effects including explosions and cloth simulations
- Excellent rendering technology even for the most advanced projects
- Comes with a 30-day free trial and 30-day money-back guarantee which are great to take it for a test drive
Pricing:
Maya is easily the best 3D animation software on the market and comes in at a reasonable cost of $1,700/year (or pay $215/month). They also offer a 30-day free trial so you can test the software before making the purchase.
Maya is one of the best on the market and my #2 pick this year.
You can test out Maya for free with a 30-day free trial or purchase a yearly plan and save 34%.
Blender
Blender is an open-source video editing software that lets you have total control over your animations. The tool offers advanced command line and programming features for rendering, modeling and creating 3D animations. It works across different operating systems, so you can use it on Linux, Windows and Mac.
Features:
- Powerful rendering, modeling and sculpting tools.
- Advanced animation and rigging tools.
- Draw and edit in 3D mode.
- Video editing and VFX, including motion tracking, masking and compositing.
- Powerful and realistic simulation tools.
- Extensive Python API for scripting and customization.
- Customizable user interface, window layout and shortcuts.
Pricing: Free.
Pros: It doesn’t cost anything to use Blender. Also, advanced animation and rendering tools make it fit for both beginners and expert users.
Cons: Blender has a very steep learning curve as it’s packed with so many features. Beginners will be overwhelmed and might need to spend hours on tutorials before getting it right.
Ideal for: Animators, engineers, scientists, artists, students.
Conclusion:
If you want to know about free graphics animation software then this blog post will definitely help you. I call these Best Graphics Animation Software because the makers of these free graphics animation software have tested them for quality and usability, and thus the quality of graphics animation that you can create with the free graphics animation software from this list are just incomparable.