10 Best Free Animation Software for Beginners of 2024

The Best Free Animation Software for Beginners: Have you thought about speeding up your work using applications for animations? We know that making an animation takes time, a lot of time, and there are so many ways to make one that choosing a good way to start will take more hours than planned.

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For this reason, I offer you this list of some of the best free animation software for beginners. You can use them on your computer, smartphone, or tablet, depending on your requirements, they will guide you a lot if you don’t have much previous experience in animation.

The Best Free Animation Software for Beginners

Develop your ideas, stories, and characters with these five options to animate. There are many options that exist today for 2D animation; There is one for every need, style, taste, and budget, but if you are new to the world of 2D animation, you will probably find these five free programs useful that encompass the most general aspects, good interfaces and ease of work to work on animation projects 2D.

1. Pencil 2D: a program to animate in 2D

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  • Access: Free
  • Devices: Windows, macOS, Linux

It is a very intuitive tool to create 2D animations, and it is simple in the interface and timeline. It is characterized by having the option of working in vectors or raster, as well as implementing sketching and inking.

However, although it is very friendly, it limits many options for brushes or advanced elements that you can find on other platforms.

In conclusion, if you are a beginner or want to animate simple strokes such as phrases, words, or gestures for nothing complicated, it is a good option.

2. Toon Boom Harmony

Developed by Toon Boom, this software is ideal for both beginners and professionals and has become the standard for 2D animation for television series, movies, and video game assets.

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It is the favorite of many artists for the easy handling of its interface and the large number of tools it offers. It has a bitmap and vector, color palettes, painting options, and incredible lip-sync function to combine voice with animations, imported 3D models for hybrid productions, and elements to perform animation with different techniques. Cut-out, traditional, scan & paint, 2D games, and paperless Also, its premium edition has the ability to export in 8k and create multiplane scenes with Z depth.

3. Rough Animator: an animation app that you must try

  • Access: Paid, Free (Trial version)
  • Devices: iOS, Android, macOS, Windows

If you have an iPad, the best free animation software for beginners you can do is download Rough Animator, and this app includes many features that will make you a great animator.

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We can use onion skinning, previews, unlimited layers, the incorporation of audio for lip-syncing, the use of rotoscopy, and custom brushes. The program is also compatible with other software such as Adobe Animate / Flash, After Effects, and Toon Boom Harmony.

It is a paid application, but you can download the trial and see if you become familiar with the software.

4. CelAction2D

This program specializes in preparing a drawn character and animating its skeleton, facilitating individual frames.

It has a low learning curve, easy and fast controls to use, and tools that allow you to handle complex projects with thousands of layers, create a palette with 16 million colors, and operate a multiplane camera. Although it does not have drawing tools, its performance, and the way in which the program simplifies some complex projects complement this lack, it also has support for 3D models and stereoscopic output.

5. FlipaClip: start animating with this app on your cell phone

  • Access: Free, paid (to add more options)
  • Devices: Android

This animation application for smartphones can be a good option to start in animation. It presents various tools for drawing and adding audio, and exporting your project in various formats.

However, its functions are reduced in the free version, and you have to pay an extra price to unlock other tools such as using more than 3 layers or adding your own audio files. It limits us a bit, but it can be a starting point for your first creation.

6. Moho (Anime Studio) Pro

The perfect option for those who are about to start creating 2D animations. With an intuitive interface, a visual content library, and powerful features like a bone rigging system, automatic image tracing, realistic motion blur, built-in lip-sync, 3D shape design, physics, motion tracking, assistant characters, and more, this program offers advanced animation tools to speed up your workflow.

It is affordable, and in addition to allowing frame-by-frame animations, it provides the ability to draw freehand and tools to convert illustrations and sketches into fully editable vector drawings automatically.

7. Krita

  • Access: Free, Paid (for Windows Store and Steam), and there is an option for donations.
  • Devices: Windows, macOS, Linux

Krita is one of the animation programs that best manage the balance between complexity and intuition.

Among the options it presents, you use onion skin, adding frames, and managing your own shortcuts. Also, it gives you the option to add music to your timeline. But a very important point is the tools to paint what you are animating.

8. Stop Motion Studio

Many describe it as the program to perform 2D animation without real animation. It has a unique editor to work frame by frame and get a great project. It allows you to create beautiful stop-motion animations easily and quickly, without complicated software or prior knowledge.

In addition, it provides the option to connect a camera and capture photos directly from the program, taking full control of all the settings on the camera, or create directly from the app for iPad and iPhone. It has text, theme, color, and drawing tools, plus the ability to change focus, exposure, or white balance.

9. Animation Paper

  • Access: Free (beta version) and $79 for the final version (No release date)
  • Devices: Windows, macOS

Created by Niels Krogh Mortensen, Animation Paper, is a very complete animation tool for the creation of characters frame by frame.

Unlike the other Best free animation software for beginners, it presents an infinity of options that perfectly shows you that an animator creates it for other animators.

10. Opentoonz

Opentoonz is a great free animation software for beginners and open-source alternatives for creating 2D animated content. Anyone can use the software and even modify the source code to add specific features to the program. Developed by Digital Video in Italy and customized by Studio Ghibli, the program was used in some cuts of Princess Mononoke, in addition to the ink, painting, color design, and digital composition process of almost all the Studio works Ghibli.

Conclusion

These are just some of the programs that will help you when creating free animations. There are many more, but remember that you should focus on the Best free animation software for beginners you feel most comfortable with and do not complicate yourself while animating.