How to Animate on Mac

Animation is an important part of UI design. It helps to improve user experience, attract user’s attention, attract more users’ scrolling. This article will show you some simple tricks on how to animate on Mac with Swift 3.0.

Sometimes, you need to create animations for your promotion on Mac. But you may not know how to do it. This article will guide you through the process of making animations on Mac. You can learn how to edit some photos or videos, then combine them into one video using some excellent video editing software for Mac.

Rive

Rive is a 3D animation software platform that is part of the Open Design movement, so it is available completely for free. What makes Rive unique is that its tools are interactive in design, allowing artists to make changes to their animations and 3D models in real-time.

Best for

Character artists and 3D modelers who are not interested in dealing with code. Rive is also a great option for animators looking to speed up their animation processes. 

FlipBook

FlipBook is a 2D animation tool that is used in converting pdf files to HTML flipping books. It can run on Microsoft Windows or Mac OS X.

Features:

  • It allows you to customize the toolbar.
  • You can insert and delete frames to remove time.
  • FlipBook helps you to shoot your pencil test drawing by just clicking on the capture icon.
  • Import 4 types of images into this software like backgrounds, overlays, movies, and cels.
  • You can add up to three soundtracks.
  • It enables you to paint the scene in less time.
  • You can use the number keys to determine the total number of frames you like to paint.

Download Link: https://digicel.net/

Tvpaint

TVPaint is a 2D application based on bitmap technology. You can mix animation on paper and digital animation and make your project with this software.

Features:

  • This tool enables you to manage the layers and images.
  • You can make storyboards and view them instantaneously as animatics.
  • It allows you to combine many FX (effects) within the FX stack.
  • You can use a graphics tablet to handle the opacity, size, jitter, and angle of brushes in real-time.
  • Tvpaint enables you to modify live camera parameters like tint, luminosity, hue, etc.
  • You can touch up images with a drawing tool.

Download Link: https://www.tvpaint.com

Toon Boom Harmony

Best for Students, Freelancers, Artists, and Professional animators looking for 2D animation and full production capabilities.

Price: Starts from $410 or $17/month. A free trial is available for 21 days.

Toon Boom Harmony

Toon Boom Harmony is an animation software that offers three packages i.e. Essentials, Advanced, and Premium. This makes it a perfect choice for everyone, right from freelance artists to big animation studios. It is mostly used for 2D games as well as films and TV series.

Features

  • Supports vector and bitmap drawings.
  • Cut-out animation with special tools to create rigs and different looks.
  • Pipeline integration – you can work with many different formats, including PDF, illustrator, bitmaps, and audio.

Verdict: Toon Boom Harmony is great for 2D animations. A wide selection of tools guarantees flexibility and functionality while creating traditional cartoons. It has been chosen as the go-to solution by many animation studios and individual artists alike.

Website: Toon Boom Harmony

OpenToonz

Best for Artists looking for open-source animation production software.
Price: Free

Opentoonz

OpenToonz – as the title suggests is an open-source and free 2D animation software. It offers a powerful set of utilities featuring all the tools that most animation artists would need. It also has some unique features that were developed from the feedback given by users and production staff.

One of them is GTS – a scanning tool. What’s more, is that OpenToonz is the open-source version of Toonz – the animation software used by none other than Ghibli studios.

Features

  • Includes many animation tools, including scanning, digital painting, filming, and others.
  • Works with both bitmap and vector images.
  • Open source, allows anyone to customize and upgrade it.

Verdict: Based on the reviews, OpenToonz might not be very easy to use and it takes a bit of learning to get the hang of it. However once that is done, the possibilities are endless and it doesn’t cost anything.

Website: OpenToonz

OpenToonz

Best for Artists looking for open-source animation production software.
Price: Free

Opentoonz

OpenToonz – as the title suggests is an open-source and free 2D animation software. It offers a powerful set of utilities featuring all the tools that most animation artists would need. It also has some unique features that were developed from the feedback given by users and production staff.

One of them is GTS – a scanning tool. What’s more, is that OpenToonz is the open-source version of Toonz – the animation software used by none other than Ghibli studios.

Features

  • Includes many animation tools, including scanning, digital painting, filming, and others.
  • Works with both bitmap and vector images.
  • Open source, allows anyone to customize and upgrade it.

Verdict: Based on the reviews, OpenToonz might not be very easy to use and it takes a bit of learning to get the hang of it. However once that is done, the possibilities are endless and it doesn’t cost anything.

Website: OpenToonz


FilmoraPro

Wondershare Anireel

FilmoraPro is one of the most well-known options for stop motion animation and other types of filmmaking. This video making software has easy to use tools for any type of animation project that you may be sorting out. It also offers an option called keyframing, which helps your stop-motion animation to look a lot smoother. You can use this for free if you are okay with Filmora’s watermark. They have lifetime and yearly packages, too.

 Stop Motion Studio

Stop Motion Studio is, perhaps, the most versatile of all of these selections. It’s not just for Mac – you can also use it on your smartphone or your tablet if you’re editing on the go. The Stop Motion Studio does everything from helping you to take great pictures to make a live green screen while you’re out and about. There’s a free trial, and the prices are reasonable.

Conclusion

Maybe you just bought a Mac and you need to know how to animate on Mac. Or maybe you’ve already done some animation and after buying a Mac, you’re wondering if your old software is compatible. This article will help you by telling you what types of animation software is available and which ones work with Mac.

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