Whether you are a beginner or an expert in the field of animation, a great animation software is what you need apart from the other programs and tools. Making your own animated movies voiced by you and with cartoon characters made by you is some fun, isn’t it? Okay, we understand that you are an animation student and since you are looking to make a career out of it, you may already have access to all the required tools in your institute, however, what if you want to create a setup of your own? The first thing that can be your road block is the steep pricing for a good animation software.
Download Animation app for mac. On this roundup, I’ve included six of one of the best animation apps that you could get within the Mac. Sparkol produces this program and it stays probably the greatest whiteboard animation software on Mac program applications for each Mac and PC. And but, animations are a robust advertising and marketing instrument and can be utilized for ads, shows. Open-source 2D Animation Software. For Windows, Linux and OSX. We providing two flavors of binary builds of Synfig for all supported operating.
But no worries, as fortunately there are many animation software available online which are not only absolutely free of cost but are also equally effective and competent. These free alternatives do a great job to meet your needs for those animation projects that you have been waiting to take up. The list we have created today includes the best from each category that is, 2D and 3D animation software. While you can create some awesome animation using the different tools they offer, it also allows you to transport tools in various formats, make use of image animation tool and many others.
If you are an animator who is full of creativity, turn your ideas into reality using these best free animation software for windows users.
Pencil
Pencil is a free open-source software that helps you create 2D animation effortlessly. It is easily the most versatile animation program in the 2D category and offers some of the stunning features all for no charges attached. It allows you to bring out your creativity with this simple yet innovative tool through colorful 2D graphics.
Even though its interface looks extremely simple and immaculate, it comes stuffed with all the important tools that are offered by some of the paid programs in the category. While it aids both the bitmap and vector images, it also supports multiple slabs and owns an inherent set of illustration tools that helps you to bring in graphic pictures or draw them on the spot prior to the animation part.
Some of the other features offered by Pencil includes determining the frame rate, sound and image import, adding colors and more. As an added bonus, this program also helps you to export your graphics too .FLV, Flash Video (SWF), Movie and to many other formats.
Creatoon
Creatoon is an extremely user-friendly, straightforward and instinctive software that allows you to create 2D animations in cut out fashion and add several special effects to the same. The interface may look quite simple and out-of-date, but the software can carry out some of the complex tasks that can produce remarkable results.
It offers menus on each side of the working area in order for you to have quick access to the main features. Even though the interface is not customizable, but it is properly arranged for you to have a clear view of the project in process. While it allows you to determine the frame rate per second along with the height and the width, it also lets you select the format of the project file.
Moreover, you can add special effects to your animation using Creatoon, conveniently store your tasks manually or simply just let it save your tasks automatically every 5 minutes. You even have the option to personalize the drawing tool and make it act according to you. The program lets you segregate your animation elements in slabs that enable you to make the required changes swiftly. While you can tweak the preciseness of the sketch tool, it also allows you to play with the progression of your brush movements.
Overall, Creatoon is a software that enables you to create animation effortlessly with advanced features making it the perfect solution even for the beginners.
Plastic Animation Paper
One of the best 2D animation software around, Plastic Animation Paper offers you uncomplicated and powerful tools to convert your ideas into beautiful cartoons and animation in 2D for no charge. This program is created for those expert animators who need a quick and compelling solution, apart from being instinctive and extremely easy to work with.
Plastic Animation Paper manages your swift sketching movements, your process of rough sketches and space where you animate. It provides you real-time suggestions and an easy process that helps you to analyze your concepts for a particular movement quickly, a specific character or your upcoming action sequence and helps you to easily create it with your hand.
Among its key features is the sketching space, adding color to the sketch, setting the frame speed, zooming in and out, insert music and more. Once you are finished drawing you can save them in different formats, viz. AVI, PNG, TGA, GIF and other formats. While this software is available for Mac OS X and as an iPad app, it is also available for download for Windows PC absolutely free of cost.
Synfig Studio
Synfig Studio is an open source and a multi-platform free software that allows you to create animations in 2D and its design is quite close to that of Pencil. However, the major difference among the two is the fact that Synfig comes with a sharp learning curve due to its avant-garde features and amazing results which you can definitely achieve once you have mastered using its tools at a professional grade.
The interface of the program is segregated into four separate windows that are, tools window, editing window, navigator window, and parameters window. Once you attain the skills of using the features efficiently, you can create superior quality cartoons, animations, and movies. It is based on vector and bitmap technique.
Since most of its elements are based on vector and all slabs are developed parametrically, only pixelation will appear in the imported raster pictures and not the inherent items when modifying the target result of the project. The keyframes of the animation are automatically appended by the PC which leads to a steady motion.
The artwork will be able to comprehend a far wider variety of pixel glow using the “High-Dynamic Range Imaging” or HDRI which uses the mathematics of floating-point in the image computation, thereby leading to improved lighting effects and color formation. The best part is that the sketching tool already scans the pressure receptiveness route off your favored tablets that helps in natural line weighting and more.
Synfig offers complete support for gradient routes that enables the animator to insert soft shading to his drawing effortlessly without the need of sketching the animation on each frame separately. It also offers a host of layers that includes gradients, transformations, fractal, geometric, etc. Apart from Linux and Mac OS X, Synfig Studio also works with Windows and is available to download for free.
Stykz
Stykz is a completely free of cost software that enables the animator to create compelling 2D animations. It supports mostly all chief operating systems that include, Mac, Linux, and even Windows. The full version is available to download completely free of charge and offers plenty of handy tools that assists you to create great animations on a user-friendly interface.
It is a software that allows you to draft your animation before you step into the painting and animation in full bloom. It is the first cross-platform stick figure animation software across the globe that helps you develop, edit and preview your creations. Stykz is strikingly similar to the Pivot StickFigure Animator as it adapts some of its features along with some of its own unqiue features.
It brings in the .stk files of Pivot 2 and Pivot 3 in order for you to be able use the prevailing files that you developed or downloaded from Droid.org or Darkdemon.org in .stk format. Stykz is based on frames, hence you can work on each frame of your creation to finish it perfectly. The Onionskin feature allows you to view what was in the earlier frame that helps you to tweak your present frame conveniently.
There are no hidden charges or any license needed to use Stykz in its complete potential.
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.
Bryce
Bryce is not exactly a traditional animation software but rather works as a landscape generating a program which is hard to find in the genre. The quality of the suit is pretty good and the download is free of cost. It has really carved that niche in the Terragen department which is both uncomplicated and detailed as per your requirement based on your project level. It works perfectly with most of the other modeling programs in the category.
Bryce is a prize-winning, feature loaded and fun 3D animation and modeling package developed to enable new users to create and provide surprising 3D surroundings in minutes. It blends extraordinary capacity with an inventive interface that is exceptionally user-friendly. You can add special effects like people, wildlife characters, sceneries and more to your drawing using the DAZ Studio character component. You can add these effects over and above the landscape, rocks, water, clouds, vegetation, sky, fog and composition for which Bryce has been known since its inception.
The free version of Bryce offers limited features; however, the pro version offers unlimited functionalities. It is available to download for Mac and Windows for now.
Aurora 3D Animation Maker
One of the widely-used animation suites across the globe, Aurora 3D Animation Maker offers a wide range of features to develop ceaseless animated effects in your film. While you can insert some really cool special effects to your drawn images and films using its user-friendly interface, you can also add your own watermark or logos to your mages and videos with special effects.
Not just that, it also allows you to convert your text to a super 3D animation that accentuates your stuff while creating web pages or editing a video. You can also manage all the facets of your animation that includes the duration and the playback rate. Using Aurora 3D you can also apply some attractive effects like fireworks, snowfall, flames and more., or you can also implement motion effects like, Cubic, Quad, Linear, etc. to add movements like twists and bounce.
Once you are finished with your animation creation and you are all set to place it on your website, Aurora 3D gives you the choice to transport it to Flash (Windows), GIF or Video formats. Moreover, you can also create 3D video titles, super 3D logo animations or amazing 3D text with this program.
The software offers a free trial period so you can try many of its awesome features at no cost during that time frame.
DAZ Studio
Daz Studio is a compelling and 3D animation creator suite that is not just extremely user-friendly, but also comes packed with rich features and functionalities. Whether you are an amateur animator or a seasoned professional, DAZ Studio is just the right bet for you. It allows you to create a free account once you sign up. The design engine is as fast as light travels and boasts of a massive library that contains pre-developed component matter helping you to develop animations in a jiffy.
It comes with a wide range of new features that includes NVIDIA Iray that is a fresh photoreal render tool with analogous items to help create life like renders such as, HDR photo environment maps and a caustic sampler. It also comes with Bloom Filters, NVIDIA Iray Drawstyle that enables you to preview the finished animation inside a Viewport, NVIDIA Iray Uber Shader (a single shading tool that blends three different shaders), NVIDIA Material Definition Language (includes material properties like, surface color, reflection/refraction, emission of light, and volume diffusion and intake characteristics), Draw Settings Pane, Light Category Support and many more useful features.
Overall, it is a wonderful 3D animation software that may require a steep learning curve, but is extremely helpful for those professional projects and is available to download for Mac and Windows for free.
Clara.io
Clara.io is a fully functional cloud-based software that helps you with 3D animation, modeling and rendering all for free. It is a web-based tool that does not require any plugins for your browser to function. Apart from featuring a great arrangement of polygonal modeling and skeletal animation, it also boasts of a user base of over 80,000 which form a solid community where people meet and discuss while they shop.
It offers modeling features like, sub-object editing, wide range of mesh instruments, subdivision surfaces, operators, etc. once you are done with your animation development, Clara helps you to import your files into over 30 3D formats such as, Collada, Blender, Babylons, STL, FBX, STEP and many more in the league.
Clara comes with a large library of photorealistic material that offers simple yet advanced materials with adjustable lighting setup in super-fast speed. It is a cross-platform tool that works with a majority of the browsers and OS that includes, Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Mac OS X, Linux, Android, iOS and Windows.
Its interface is easy to use with receptive work process where you can Undo, Redo, Drag, Drop files anywhere. Additionally, you can also customize, stretch, blend, and also develop Custom 3D viewers of your own. It allows you to even share your work easily suing galleries where it features a wide range of 3D models and also offers an interactive option with the help of jQuery. Moreover, Clara also allows editing by multiple users at the same time with a pre-user license.
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Depending on your purpose and skills, you can choose from different types of software available both offline and online, for professionals and amateur users, 2D, 3D, whiteboard or stop motion animation tool, etc.
Below are our picks for the best animation software for mac of 2019. For more background information, see a more detailed buying advice below the picks.
3d Animation Software For Mac
Part1. Whiteboard Animation Tools
Part2. 2D Animation Tools
Part3. 3D Animation Tools
Part4. Stop Motion Animation Tools
Part5. Motion Graphics Software
How to Choose the Right Animation Software for Mac
Part2. 2D Animation Tools
Part3. 3D Animation Tools
Part4. Stop Motion Animation Tools
Part5. Motion Graphics Software
How to Choose the Right Animation Software for Mac
Part1. Whiteboard Animation Tools
#1. Best Whiteboard Animation Software for Mac: VideoScribe by Sparkol
This program is produced by Sparkol and it remains one of the best whiteboard animation software programs for both Mac and PC. You can also use it on a number of mobile devices including devices that run android. There are elements of the program that works through the cloud making it very simple to upload and edit video wherever you might be.
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Videoscribe works quite intuitively for building business presentations, TED talk style videos, tutorials, creative marketing solutions and more. What is produced out of this program looks hand-drawn and extremely professional for any type of marketing campaign. The best part is that you can use many of these tools to create these effects with very little animation knowledge.
Even children enjoy using this program because of its ease of use. There is a full library of stock images, animation and more as well as an extensive voiceover soundtrack that can be used with the solutions here.
The yearly and monthly subscription also ensures that there is a flexible use for the program. It also comes with a seven-day free trial with features to try before you buy.
#2. Best Free Animation Software for Mac: PowToon
This is a fantastic online presentation maker for academic use, presentations and infographics.
The program is completely free to use and has a number of animation effects on board that can make anything exported out of the program seem extremely professional.
The free templates available in the program as well as the quality of the animations that are presented within the platform make it a true favorite amongst many brands.
A number of major companies now almost exclusively trust their creative tools to Powtoon and it can be used almost anywhere where there is an Internet connection with mass compatibility.
As a fully cloud-based system there’s no use for installation or downloads to take full advantage of it. Its available for free use on any Macintosh computer as long as you are willing to use the watermark.
Part2. 2D Animation Tools
#3. Best 2D Animation Software for Mac: Toon Boom Harmony
This is a program that actually deserves some surprising recognition. The company has partnered with major film companies like Warner brothers, Disney, and Nickelodeon and it’s currently one of the best and most powerful 2-D animation suites for commercial use.
With the use of this program you can build anything from traditional animation all the way to amazing drawing tools that can produce the future of 3-D animation. The 3-D cameras and integration available in this platform can provide fundamental solutions for drawing, rendering and building beautiful projects.
There are tools and tasks available here that can suit small hobby animators all the way up to professional uses. The premium version delivers the top tool professional solutions that you might expect at of any major animation suite. The essentials level of the harmony program is designed more for hobbyists and it delivers a scaled down version of some of their more high and customization techniques.
Toon Boom not only remains one of the best 2-D animation programs for mac but it is a regular fixture in the animation world today.
#4. Runner-up, Best 2D Animation Software for Mac: Adobe Animate
Adobe is one of the successors to perhaps one of the most popular 2-D animation software is available. At the core of Animate are the flash tools that have been working to create high-quality animations since the early days of the Internet. Today the program uses vector-based publishing to produce intuitive and inexpensive animation results.
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Although it may not have all of the professional animation tools that you would find in some major production suites, it’s possible to get very professional looking results.
#5. Best Free 2D Animation Software for Mac: Pencil
This is a simple and open source vector-based program that’s designed for the Mac OS X platform. It’s also available on Linux and Windows and it was originally created for producing digital comics. The platform allows animators to use the basic hand-drawn techniques that were experimented with long in the past. Pencil is an ideal program for beginners that don’t want to invest in expensive license for a program. It can teach the basic principles of animation and with a timeline feature it’s possible to add new layers to arrange fun effects.
This is one of the best programs for beginners and sketching characters as well as setting keyframes can all be done using the pen tool, fill tool and the vector layers tool. The interface on this is actually based off of some of the original Adobe flash platform’s and it produces some good quality graphics even on a tablet device. Perhaps one of the best parts of using this program is that it automatically exports everything in.FLV which gives it mass compatibility with a number of online sources. The videos that you export here will be easy to embed or upload in video sharing sources and more.
Part3. 3D Animation Tools
#6. Best 3D Animation Software for Mac: Maya
Autodesk Maya remains one of the best 3-D modeling software programs that’s designed for Mac, Windows and Linux. The program itself has migrated many of the tools away from Autodesk Mud and now has features that you would normally find in several different pieces of software for creating highly detailed 3-D models. Autodesk Maya is a 3-D modeling software that is designed mostly for professional artists but with the templates that are available for download and the massive amount of tutorials online, it is possible to see quite a difference with this software when you are working with it over time.
#7. Runner-up, Best Free 3D Animation Software for Mac: Blender
Blender is a program that is designed with open source technology for 3-D modeling and it’s made mostly for beginners that want the option to learn how to play and get comfortable with reading modeling on their Mac computer. This open-source program does feature many of the basic features that you can expect to find including rigging, animation, architectural support and even the option to create full games. The philosophy that’s behind it allows for the inclusion of many different templates and it is very well suited to use by a number of creators. Blender remains some of the best 3-D modeling software for creative artists with its completely free use.
Part4. Stop Motion Animation Tools
#8. Best for Making Stop Motion Videos: Dragonframe
Dragonframe remains one of the best stop motion software solutions for mac today. It’s one of the top choices for many of the world’s largest studios like Laika and Aardman. It can produce high-quality masterpieces in stop motion animation and it is a perfectly suited set of professional tools. The program allows for easy capture of a number of precise movements and you can also compose in light various angles using the camera controls on board. Editing images as well as performing advanced image review techniques can all be done through the program as well.
The process of inserting and editing audio can be done according to a characters needs and based off of the animation that you want to create. The advantage to using some of the precise movements and controls in this program is that you can have a wide array of improvements at your fingertips for professional products.
#9. Runner-up: Stop Motion in Movavi Video Editor
We selected this is our runner up because with this program there’s no need to pay for a dedicated piece of stop motion software. This is an open source piece of technology that delivers a full-featured video editor that suitable for many beginners.
The program itself is perfect for getting all of the features that are often teased in many full license software programs. Because it’s open source there are also a number of templates that can make it easy to use. The full-featured video editor is excellent for its features and for the newest features that are being added by the community regularly to keep up with the stop motion technology of today.
Part5. Motion Graphics Software
#10. Best Motion Graphic Animation Software for Mac: After Effects
With a number of motion graphic animation software programs available for Mac, after effects sets itself apart.
Adobe After Effects is truly one of the most masterful programs for any motion graphic artist. Of course many of the features of aftereffects can be found in other Adobe programs, but there is no other piece of software that can be so versatile for the creation of motion graphics. The way to the menus are set up and the way that the program behaves makes it an intuitive leap for 3-D modeling and 2.5 D animation.
The whole goal of aftereffects is to help you produce almost any type of animation that you may want without having to involve 3-D modeling. After effects remains one of the primary pieces of software for motion graphic work in storyboards, motion comics and more. There are elements in this program that are close to Photoshop and illustrator but they have been optimized for the purpose of creating motion graphics here.
How to Choose the Right Animation Software for Mac
When it comes down to choosing the program that you may want to purchase a license for or download on your computer, you need to be very focused into the types of animation that you are looking for and what you need out of any program. The first thing you need to understand is the various styles and techniques for animation and what you might want out of a program:
2d animation
This is the traditional style of animation that comes from the idea of cell shading or digital cell shading. In the past animators would draw images on transparent pieces of paper and then later than one frame at a time to create motion. Today drawings can be rendered and layered on top of one another using a digital timeline and computer vector animations.
3d animation
This is a completely new and different way to look at traditional animation that requires understanding the basic principles of composition, movement and 3-D modeling. Creating 3-D graphics can involve scanning objects or even piecing together various 3-D models to create characters, share complex ideas and then animate all of the items along a storyboard.
Motion graphics
A motion graphic is considered to be one of the newest forms of animation. These motion graphics are fairly common in items like banner ads, short comics and more. Usually these types of graphics are designed for commercial purposes.
Stop motion
Stop motion involves taking photos of an object and manipulating it ever so slightly to eventually produce a storyboard of motion. Completing and repeating this process over and over eventually gives the full allusion of movement. This is a very time-consuming process that often involves manipulating objects slowly over hours of movement to create just a few seconds of animation.
Presentation or whiteboard style
This is a popular style of animation that has taken off over the past few years. The online marketing videos that are produced and the specific programs that have been created for building whiteboard videos are proving that this is a format that truly keeps people engaged and remains a trend for school projects, business presentations and more.
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