Free design software for beginners is hard to find. There are many kinds of free design software, my friends, but only certain “free” versions are actually free and that means you can use it however you want. The other “free” versions have caveats like using a watermark or only using the software in a trial mode or only using part of the software. But fret not! We’ve drawn up a list of all the best graphic design software.
You’re new to the design game and you want to create the best possible graphics for your blog or online store. To do that, you need to use graphic design software. But there’s a problem. Design software is expensive — most of them cost hundreds of dollars. And if you don’t want to shell out that kind of money, then you might be wondering if there are any free design software options available. Good news! There are plenty of free graphic design solutions that can help you get started with your designs and graphics today!
Canva
Canva is an amazing free web based app. In fact, one of the best free graphic design software for beginners as well as professionals. It is really easy and simple to use. A perfect graphic design tool that brings some really sophisticated designing abilities for its users.
Key Features of Canva:
- Easy to use drag and drop features.
- Thousands of beautiful and professional layouts to choose from.
- A great selection of fonts to make your graphic look amazing.
- Plenty of free icons,shapes and elements to design your graphics.
- Free photos to add to your graphics. There are some paid photos and icons to use, but that too quite reasonable at 1 USD only.
- It helps you create stunning images, infographics, presentations and social media graphics in an elegant style.
Canva is a common choice, when it comes to selecting the Best free graphic design software. The simplicity of its tools and the growing number of features are attracting a whole lot of users towards it.
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:
Lots of creative people are looking for a free alternative to the expensive graphic software that is out there. Some people don’t want to pay a monthly or yearly subscription fee to use design software. Others just want to try out new software before spending any money on it.