2d Animation Software

The term "2d animation" refers to hand drawn, classic animation.
The programs listed below are an extension of the light-table-and-pencil world.

At the end of this page you will find a list of what to expect from a 2d animation software, and also what hardware and complementary programs you might need.

If you need a Flash style, vector based animation software - click here.
You can, of course, draw your animation frame by frame in a Vector-Based program.
Simon's cat, for example, is drawn this way.

List of Totally Free Classic Animation Software

MonkeyJam

monkeyjam.org

A simple and very friendly 2d animation software

• Totally free
• PC only

Requirements

• Pentium III or higher (seriously people?? Pentium?!)
• Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7
• DirectX 8 or higher

Read The Flying Animator's Software Review

Pencil

www.pencil-animation.org

Free and open-source

Mac and Linux oriented. PC has some issues:  
"At the moment the Windows version can only export frames and Flash files".

Plastic animation paper

plasticanimationpaper.dk 

• Completely free at this point
  
• Windows only

Now Look at Some Heavier Canons -
Not Free, But Not Expensive:

DigiCel FlipBook

www.digicelinc.com

Built to accommodate professional classic animators.

• You can download a full working version of FlipBook for free here. 
• It's delivered in trial mode with a permanent (and very large) watermark.
• PC and Mac compatible

2d Animation Software with Trial Versions

ToonBoom

toonboom.com

An amazing family of programs for making animation, for animators of all levels.
They offer software for:

• Advanced animators and a complete studio pipeline
  
• Freelance, "solo" animators
• Beginners and kids of all ages
• Storyboard Software
• Animate Garfield the Cat and friends - great fun!
• Free trial downloads
• PC and Mac compatible

TVpaint

www.tvpaint.com

For exciting brushes, and an Un-flashy, artistic look.

Trial version available

PC and Mac compatible

Flash

An overview of the software

Trial download link

• Trial period for 30 days
  
• PC and Mac compatible

What to expect in a Classic Animation Software?

A free 2d animation software usually allows you to:

• Scan your artwork and place it on a timeline.
  
• Use a pen tablet and draw the frames directly into the software, bypassing the need for pencil and paper.
• Capture images from a camera on an animation stand, or a simple webcam, to create a pencil test or stopmotion.
• Import an existing image sequence.
• Insert a soundtrack.
• Ink and Paint your animation.
• Most 2d animation software will work together with an external image editing program, such as Photoshop, to let you to work on your frames.
• All will export your creation to a video file, usually to an AVI or WMV or Quicktime format.

Hardware

You will need one or all of these:

• Scanner
• Digital camera
• Webcam, preferably one that has an adjustable focus.
• Pen tablet
• Peg bar, or some other way to register hand drawn paper pages.

Complementary software

A 2d animation software will usually only take care of making the animation itself.
Beyond a certain level of production, you will probably need:

• A Sound Editing software
  
• Image editing (eg. Photoshop or Gimp)
• Compositing and Editing software (Premier, After Effects, iMovie, maybe Movie maker could do up to a certain level.) You will need this to combine several shots into a sequence and add a soundtrack of reasonable quality.

The overall production software can come later though, when you feel you need them.

First, pick one and just start animating!

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Learn to draw people

How to animate a walk cycle

List of vector based 2d cartoon software