26 Best Free Animation Software for Beginners [Free & Paid]

Animation has become a part of every sphere of life, whether it’s TV commercials or animated movies. Video content is the most popular form of content these days and an animation plays a great role in it. Animation and motion graphics are more familiar to most people than we actually know. 

If you are a beginner and wish to learn how to create animation, you will need good animation software. To make this job easier, we will walk you through the 26 best free animation software for beginners. 

Animation is creating the illusion of motion by moving still images or characters in rapid succession. Before we dive into the top 26 free animation programs for you to choose from, let’s take a look at the different types of animations. 

1. 2D Animation 

2D animation is a traditional form of animation that allows creating characters, storyboards or backgrounds in 2D space. Ages ago, people used to create 2D animation by clicking photographs of hand-drawn images and placing them on acetate sheets known as cels. 

However, today 2D animation is created on computers using different software. Despite the growing popularity of 3D animation, 2D animation is still in high demand and is extensively used in the media & entertainment industry. 

2. 3D Animation 

Who would have imagined that objects & characters can be moved in a three-dimensional space? To create a 3D animation, you will be able to learn how to digitally animate a character, sculpt it, while giving it a skeleton so that it can be moved & manipulated. 

3D animated images are used to make short films, TV commercials, movies, and a lot more. 

3. Whiteboard Animation 

Whiteboard animation is the best form of an explainer video. The minimal design of these videos lets the audience focus on the content and not get distracted by the visuals. Fundamentally, whiteboard animation involves a process in which the story is narrated with drawings on a whiteboard. 

Whiteboard animation is mainly used for educational and corporate purposes as it simplifies a complicated message into a simple & appealing one. 

4. Stop-motion Animation 

Stop-motion animation is a kind of animation in which the objects are physically moved or manipulated making it appear as if the objects are moving on their own. It’s a sequence of frames that are played in a way that creates an illusion of movement & action. 

5. Clay Animation 

Clay Animation is a form of stop-motion animation where characters are made with clay and used for animation. Oil-based or water-based clays can be used to create clay animations. However, creating clay animations is not an easy process, and it’s time-consuming & requires hard work. 

26 Best Free Animation Software for Beginners 

1. Adobe Character Animator 

Adobe Character Animator is suitable for both beginners and professionals. All you need to do is plug in your mic and start your webcam to create animations. Using a few mouse clicks you can turn your artwork into an interesting character on Adobe Character animator. 

It is one of the best free animation software that uses facial recognition and gesture recognition to animate various characters. You can use the movement of your hands, face as well as entire body for creating attractive animations. It is widely used in Hollywood for creating animated scenes and movies. 

Adobe Character Animator Features: 

• Allows automatic lip-syncing of facial features such as eyes, mouth, eyebrows 
• Offers built-in puppets 
• Allows live-streaming, recording as well as editing 
• You can collaborate with your team members & share your work with them
• Supports a variety of animation options like walking, breathing, blinking, other behaviors as well 

Available on: Windows, MacOS

2. Cartoon Animator 4 

Cartoon Animator 4 is a highly suggested free 2d animation software for beginners. It works more or less like Adobe Character Animator as it also uses facial expressions and voice recognition for creating animations. It’s also suitable for professionals. 

Using Cartoon Animator 4, you can easily create customized 2D characters, select characters from its extensive database or import PSD character templates. 

The software is packed with numerous features & tools such as bone rigging, facial recognition, hand-tracking, audio lip-syncing, stretch animation, etc. 

Cartoon Animator 4 Features: 

• Offers tools like full-body motion capture, digital puppets, FK/IK system, smart motion retargeting, motion path, timeline editing, and more
• You can move any static image by using various motion templates provided in its huge library
• The pipeline feature allows users to import 3D motions into 2D artworks and create customized elastic motion libraries
• Allows you to convert Photoshop layers into 2D characters 
• Supports 4K video resolution 
• A library full of readymade character templates 
• Create interactive compound animations
• Allows transformation of previous content into 360 heads with motion 

Available on: Windows & MacOS

3. DigiCel Flipbook 

DigiCel Flipbook is one of the best 2d animation software for beginners as it’s quite easy to use.  It designs one frame at a time therefore it’s called frame-by-frame animation software. You can easily scan your artwork directly from paper to the software. 

DigiCel Flipbook is loaded with a wide range of features & tools to make your 2D animation more interesting. It is quite efficient & fast and allows you to make any changes while the animation runs, and you can see the changes next time the loop runs. 

DigiCel Flipbook Features: 

• Shoot and scan your drawings or even draw within the software 
• Offers tools like pan, rotate, zoom, blur, dissolve, multiple frame work-desk, lip-sync support, etc
• Allows working on multiple frame simultaneously
• Multiple import/export options
• Import artwork from other programs 

Available on: Windows & MacOS

4. Stop Motion Studio 

With powerful software for creating high-quality stop motion animation, Stop Motion Studio is quite popular among beginners. One of the best animation software, it allows users to create attractive 4K stop-motion animations that can be easily combined with 2D-type drawings painted directly on the image. 

Stop Motion Studio uses a frame-by-frame animation technique and is accessible on various platforms and devices. The software allows you to use your smartphone camera or a separate digicam as well as a second camera to provide a better perspective to your videos. 

Stop Motion Studio Features: 

• Offers dozens of effects, sound effects, painting tools, filters, audio clips to enhance your animation 
• You can add titles, credits and other filter effects to your animations while you click the frames
• The frame-by-frame view shows all the images in a chronological order
• Remove unwanted objects with the magic eraser
• Green-screen, onion skinning, grid options 
• Allows you to easily import images, audio & video files
• You can also record your own voice & use it in your video
• The software lets you fix in & out points to mark a particular portion of your video for looping and playback 
• You can design title & edit screens 
• You can export your videos directly to YouTube

Available on: Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android

5. Toon Boom Harmony 

Toon Boom Harmony is a popular animation software for 2D & 3D beginners that can be used to create different kinds of animations like traditional animation, cut-out animation, 2D & 3D animation and the like. It has a moderate learning curve and can be used by both professionals and beginners. 

Toon Boom Harmony is a one-stop solution for drawing animation to creating final videos. The software encompasses a wide array of advanced tools & features to create beautiful artwork, animations while adding sound effects & other visual effects to it. 

Toon Boom Harmony Features: 

• Offers a stabilizer for drawing smooth lines, stylus pressure responsiveness, tilt & angle responsiveness 
• Uses vector/bitmap drawing technology
• Offers a variety of tools such as brush engine, 2D/3D integration, deformers, pipeline integration
• You can easily create cut-out animation 
• Get access to advanced palettes and painting tools for good control over texture & colour
• Allows importing of multilayer PSB & PSD files, PDF, Illustrator, bitmaps and media files 
• Offers 3, 4 and 5-point curved perspective guides 

Available on: Windows & MacOS

6. Moho Debut 

This is an animation beginners software but it can also be used by kids. The software is packed with robust tools & features with an easy-to-use interface. However, the simple interface never undermines the strength & power of this software. 

Moho Debut is one of the free animation software that is available in multiple languages such as English, Spanish, Chinese, German, French and Japanese. There is a free trial of 30 days besides other paid plans. 

Moho Debut Features: 

• Offers tools like bone rigging, effects for shapes & layers, PSD support, keyframe options as well as brushes to edit & animate
• You can use advanced masking tool, auto freeze tool, etc
• Pen pressure support for tablets 
• Use Pin-bones to change, reshape or move assets in different ways
• Offers a huge library of pre-made characters, scenes, props, audio & video clips, brushes, etc
• You can create your own objects and characters using its vector-based drawing tools
• Provides video & motion-tracking, follow path tool, etc

Available on: Windows, MacOS

7. Pencil2D 

Pencil 2D is the best free animation software for beginners who wish to create traditional hand-drawn animation. It allows you to use both vector & raster graphics and lets you easily switch between the two kinds of artwork.  The software has a minimal design which makes it quite user-friendly to use. 

It is completely open-source with a great community of users who can anytime contribute to its features by adding source code. The software has a selection of tools and features to try your animation skills. 

Pencil2D Features: 

• Allows you to import & export GIFs
• You can review work with rolling & flipping techniques
• A variety of distortion & light effects
• Offers support for TIFF format 
• Offers different tools like x-sheet support, undo/redo system, new layer manipulation operations, etc
• You can sketch, ink & paint anytime you prefer 
• Import images as new layers on specific frames 

Available on: Windows, MacOS, Linux

8. Synfig Studio 

It is one of the best free animation software for beginners who are not comfortable with the frame-by-frame technique. Synfig Studio is open-source which means its users can upgrade its features as per their convenience while making changes to the source code. 

The software is based on vectors and allows its users to have full control over editing the vector artwork in the animation. Besides, you also have the option to control your characters and create character puppets. 

Synfig Studio Features: 

• Using vector tweening you can convert a vector graphic into another form quite easily
• Offers over 50 layers to make interesting artworks & animations such as gradients, transformations, geometrics, filters, fractals, distortions, etc
• Also offers an additional skeleton distortion layer
• You can use mathematical expressions to link parameters of layers
• Create cut-out animation effect with bitmap images

Available on: Windows, MacOS, Linux

9. Animaker 

Animaker is one of the best animation software for anyone whether beginners or experienced animation enthusiasts. This DIY animation software is loaded with a variety of powerful tools & features to allow users to create stunning animations. 

Animaker is one of the free animation programs that can be used to create whiteboard videos, marketing bits, infographic videos, educational videos, etc. It is used by various big brands such as Amazon, Dell, Nokia, Siemens, and the like. 

Animaker Features: 

• The software supports full HD along with horizontal and vertical layouts
• It offers features such as record, multimove, camera in/out, curve, transition effects, enter/exit, etc
• Choose from a vast selection of audio features like sound effects, text-to-speech, voice recording, pre-loaded background tracks, etc
• There are libraries of pre-made templates
• You can record your own voice 
• You can use animations as videos or presentations with the deck feature

Available on: Cloud-based

10. OpenToonz

A 2D animation software, OpenToonz can be used for both commercial & non-commercial purposes.  It is free and open-source which means it’s features can be updated by its users. OpenToonz is compatible with 4 kinds of scanning and lets its users save settings of scanning. Besides, it’s also compatible with TWAIN standards. 

This free animation software is packed with a bunch of unique features & tools that are customized to meet the needs of the production staff. It also comes with an effects-development kit created by Dwango. 

OpenToonz Features: 

• Offers a plethora of tools & features like vector & bitmap drawing tools, special effects, indexed colour palettes, motion tracking, motion tweening, bones character animation as well as particles effects for rain, dust, etc
• You can use anti-aliased lines
• Offers a plug-in effect for image-processing
• Allows you to synthesize effects with the GUI (Graphic User Interface) using the node tree 
• Allows users to use more effects with plug-ins 
• You can manage images with the actual scale resolution 
• Lets you easily paint with provisional colours 

Available on: MacOS & Windows

11. Powtoon 

Powtoon is another free-to-use animation software mainly designed for beginners but can be used by professionals too. Giant corporations like IBM, Microsoft, Google, Cisco, eBay, Cisco, Starbucks, and Adobe use it for creating engaging marketing bits and infographics videos for marketing purposes. 

Additionally, this animation software free is also used by schools and universities to make infographic videos & educational tutorials. Plus, it’s also apt for creating animated explainer videos & presentations for reaching out to colleagues & team members for corporate purposes. 

Powtoon Features: 

• Get access to its extensive visual library containing hundreds of animated & branded characters, pre-made video templates, designed elements, HD footage, royalty-free images, and soundtracks 
• The free version  allows you to export your animated videos to platforms like Facebook, Vimeo, Hubspot and YouTube
• Allows you to implement image files and create GIFs
• Create your own branded characters by customizing their face, hair, clothing and gestures
• Allows you to change aspect ratio & sizes 
• Provides screen & webcam recording 
• Access the brand fonts, characters, templates and colors 

Available on: cloud-based animation software 

12. TupiTube 

TupiTube is one of the best free animation software mainly designed for children, teenagers and amateur animators. This software was developed for people who wish to create & edit videos without paying for them. With a vast selection of tools, it allows users to create attractive 2D animations for different purposes. 

TupiTube is one of the open-source free animation programs and allows its users to modify its source code and update its features. 

TupiTube Features: 

• You can import raster images and use them as still backgrounds or animated assets
• The software supports tools for vector illustration like lines, ellipses, rectangles and polygons, whereas users can create paths with the pen or pencil tool
• Fill bounded areas of vector objects with the paint bucket tool
• Supports tweening of positions, scale, colours, rotation, opacity and sheer
• You can export finished animated videos in various file formats like AVI, MPEG, SWF, Ogg Theora
• Manage & reuse imported media assets using the Library Panel

Available on: MacOS, Windows, Android

13. Terragen 

Terragen is a scenery generator software that is developed by Planetside Software. It is mainly designed for creating renderings and animations of landscapes. Its classic version is popular among amateurs due to its free & intuitive interface and its ability to develop photorealistic landscapes. 

Terragen is a good animation software for beginners as it has a moderate learning curve and is easy to learn. 

Terragen Features: 

• One of the latest features is ray-traced preview
• Other features are ozone simulation, lens effects, photo-real clouds, along with new shaders and enhancements
• The Terragen Pro version comes with full 3D motion blur, FBX, render layers and AOVs, spherical cameras, and stereo cameras
• Allows importing & exporting heightmaps to images for using it in other programs

Available on: Windows

14. Sketchbook 

Sketchbook is one of the simplest free animation programs to create attractive sketches and 2D animations. Whether it’s simple & quick sketches or fully-fledged artwork, it takes minimal efforts to animate one’s ideas into beautiful visuals. The interface of this software is clean and unobtrusive while letting you remove tools and palettes out of sight until you wish to use them again. 

Sketchbook Features: 

• You can add unlimited layers that can be blended together
• Offers a wide range of customizable brushes supported by rulers, guides, and stroke tools to create different types of artwork
• Draw common shapes such as circles, triangles, rectangles, etc
• You can colour your artwork
• You can import or export the layers as a Photoshop document or PSD

Available on: MacOS, Windows, Android & iOS

15. Krita 

Krita is a free animation software for beginners that allows users to customize their workflow. The software uses the frame-by-frame raster animation technique. It offers over 100 professional brushes for creating different types of drawings. 

It offers animated raster layers with animated raster images with frames while using the time-line docker to order them. 

Krita Features: 

• Customize your brushes with 9 different brush engines. This software also allows you to add a stabilizer to brush to smoothen it
• It offers features like onion skinning, new dockers, importing/exporting image sequence, CSV import & export
• Create comic panels with the built-in vector drawing tools
• Allows you to highlight the drawings 
• Create seamless textures & patterns by developing image reference on the x & y-axis 
• Allows you to flatten, combine or arrange layers to organize your artwork
• You can import brush packs & texture from other artists
• The Frame dropping feature allows you view your animation at real-time speed

Available on: Windows

16. TVPaint Animation 

TVPaint is one of the free animation software for beginners that works on bitmap technology. The latest version of this software has released a few new features. It allows you to mix animation on paper as well as digital animation and create your project using it. 

Some of its latest features include full screen access, convert & export the files to MP4 format, color selection mode, and multi back-up option. 

TVPaint Animation Features: 

• It allows you to create storyboard and view them instantly as animatics
• You can manage the layers as well as images
• Use a graphics tablet to tackle the opacity, size, and angle of brushes easily
• You can combine different effects in the FX stack
• You can modify live camera parameters like tint, hue, luminosity, etc
• Retouch images using a drawing tool

Available on: Windows, MacOS, Linux

17. Cinema 4D 

Cinema 4D is an ideal 3d animation software for beginners but it can also be used by expert artists. It is a professional animation, 3D modeling, rendering and simulation software. The powerful, stable & fast selection of tools makes 3D workflows more accessible as well as efficient for motion graphics, design, VFX, game development, and other types of animations. 

Cinema 4D Features: 

• It’s latest version includes features like easy browsing & obtaining of models, assets and materials, along with key workflow enhancements
• Allows polygonal modeling, parametric modeling and volume modeling
• The Texturing feature allows you to create photo-realistic materials using multi-layered material channels 
• Build organic models using its various intuitive sculpting tools like pull, smooth, cut, etc
• Create, move, select or delete points, surfaces or edges using Poly Pen
• It offers a wide array of animation tools to create life-like characters or creatures 
• You can customize the layout as per your requirements

Available on: Windows

18. Adobe After Effects

Created by Adobe Systems, Adobe After Effects is one of the best 2D & 3D animation software intended for both beginners and professional animators. It is mainly designed for creating motion graphics, visual effects, and for post-production purposes in movies and games. Additionally, it also works as a non-linear editor, media transcoder as well as audio editing software. 

Adobe After Effects is a powerful animation software free that can be used for 2D & 3D animations, though it does not support frame-by-frame animation techniques. 

Adobe After Effects Features: 

• Besides animation, it allows keying, tracking, motion tracking, rotoscoping, chroma keying, and compositing
• Create cinematic film captions/titles, transitions or intros. Also, you can navigate & design in a 3-dimensional space 
• Bring motion to anything with expressions or keyframes
• Select from hundreds of visual effects and create VR animated videos
• Its newest features include 3D Ground Plane, Real-time 3D Draft Preview, improved composition toolbar, and media replacement in motion graphics templates & essential properties

Available on: Windows & MacOS

19. Plastic Animation Paper

Animation Paper is a great free animation software for beginners, students, pro animators, game developers, and filmmakers. The software allows users to effortlessly create hand-drawn 2D animations while viewing the edits in real-time. 

Animation Paper is packed with a sufficient number of tools & features for a basic animation project. The interface is fast, intuitive, and simple to use. 

Plastic Animation Paper Features: 

• Offers basic drawing tools such as layers, zoom, rotation, cutouts, etc
• Offers smooth rotation and zooming of the view
• Small & big format frames
• High-level & customizable onion skinning, options for flipping, layers & lasso
• High-quality lines as well as stabilization 
• Paint & colouring options 
• Offers real-time full frame reference on another monitor for quick editing 
• Allows you to import video or frame-stacks for rotoscoping

Pros 

• Simple & intuitive interface
• Cross-platform 
• Allows exporting of videos in multiple formats like MP4, MOV, PNG, etc

Cons 

• Doesn’t work well on mobile phones 

Available on: macOS, Windows, Linux

20. Stykz 

If you are looking for software that works excellent to create 2D stick figure animated videos, Stykz is the best option for you. Stykz is one of the free animation programs that has a basic interface. It is frame-based software which means you can work on a single frame at a time. It uses onion skinning which allows you to view the previous frame. 

Stykz Features: 

• Create frame-based animation while working on one frame at a time
• The Select Tool allows you to select & manipulate more than one figure
• You don’t need a separate editing window and editing can be done directly on the stage
• Figures can be scaled, rotated, flipped, colorized, duplicated and aligned
• Edit multiple stick objects, fill shapes or even import your stick figures 
• You can save & reuse your Figures next time and even share it with others 

Available on: Windows, MacOS, Linux

21. Toontastic 3D

Toontastic 3D is a free animation software specifically designed for children but brands use it for creating 3D videos. The software is perfect for storytelling, and you can create your own characters, either from scratch or with an uploaded picture. 

To encourage storytellers to get creative with their narratives while brands can do the same. You can plan your storyline, animate, add narration & music and share it to the world. 

Toontastic 3D Features: 

• It records your voice and animations while storing it on your device as a 3D video
• You can design characters for creating films, cookery shows, social lessons, etc
• Comes with ready-made scenes to select from, so the only drawings you need to draw is when the characters arrive
• Allows you to save & export 
• The software also works offline allowing you to create videos while commuting or even when the internet is not connected 
• It offers better control & flexibility

Available on: iOS & Android

22. CelAction 

CelAction is one of most powerful animation software for beginners that has been used for creating animations for few award-winning films, TV shows and ads. CelAction is popular among some of the leading animators and represents high-quality and high-volume animated videos. 

CelAction is a tool that allows tackling complicated projects with multiple layers at ease. 

CelAction Features: 

• It allows users to use bitmaps or vectors or both at the same time
• You can define various keyboard shortcuts
• Provides floating & dockable panels along with user-defined workspace 
• You can separate the drawing from the animation 
• Create a palette using over 16 million colours 
• Convert vector shapes into deformable and morphable objects

Available on: Windows

23. Blender 

Blender may look ideal for professional animators & creators, but it also works well for beginner-level users. It is a free and open-source 2D animation software for beginners that offers a variety of functions like animation, rendering, simulation, rigging, modeling, compositing, motion tracking, video editing as well as 2D animation pipeline. 

It is often used for creating advanced animation in films, games, etc. Since it’s a public platform, therefore creatives from around the globe can contribute to its maintenance. 

Blender Features: 

• Offers digital sculpting tools for each stage of the production pipeline 
• You can import or export videos in MPEG, AVI and QuickTime file formats
• The Grease pencil facilitates drawing in 3D while combining 2D & 3D art 
• Allows you to create simulations for rain, fog, fire, smoke, liquid, etc
• Offers a path tracer for realistic rendering 
• Customizable keyboard shortcuts 
• Offers Python API for customization and scripting 
• Offers real-time previewing of 3D scene and tracked footage 
• Convert still characters into attractive animations 

Available on: Windows, MacOS, Linux

24. Crello 

Crello is one of the best free animation software for beginners which allows users to create engaging animations, advertisements, social media videos, and a lot more. It offers an extensive library of more than 8000 animated designs and motion graphics to create eye-catching animated videos for blogs, the web, and the like. 

Crello Features: 

• Crello provides a wide range of photo-editing, animation and audio features
• It allows you to add text, speech bubble, filters, layers to your photographs, while you can also flip, rotate, resize, crop or blur them anytime
• Create animated logos to catch your audience’s attention for your brand
• Lets you apply animated effects to your artboard 
• Use its huge library of HD video clips
• Download animated videos in MP4 video format 
• Offers around 30,000 professionally-designed templates to make your videos more interesting 
• A library full of audio files 

Available on: iOS & Android

25. Biteable 

Create animations to suit every style with this highly-efficient free animation software and let your videos stand out. Biteable is specially designed to create short videos & animations for social media, ads, promotional videos, etc. 

Biteable is used by some of the biggest brands across the world like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, BBC, Shopify, Disney, Samsung, and many more. It offers a trial version and you can upgrade it for $19 a month. Besides, it has two paid plans for individuals and professional creators. 

Biteable Features: 

• Offers a vast variety of pre-made templates for Facebook posts, ads, presentations, event promos, training videos, announcements, e-commerce promos, etc
• Animated videos can be downloaded in HD format
• Use millions of stock clips & photos for your animations 
• Share your animated videos with other team members 
• You can upload your finished videos to social media platforms
• A library of different types of audio tracks 

Available on: MacOS & Windows

26. Flipsnack

Flipsnack is a web-based flipbook animation software, that allows users to create and publish
realistic page flip animations.
Due to its intuitive drag and drop editor and its integrated library of fully customizable templates,
this platform is suitable for every type of user, whether you are a non-technical person or a
professional designer.
Within a few clicks, Flipsnack transforms static documents into animated publications with a
the large variety of interactive elements.
Amongst its most important features you can find the following: audio and video elements; you
can embed maps into your publication; add photo slideshows and GIFs; you can also add social
media buttons to your presentation and many more.

Flipsnack features:

• Allows users to easily obtain a 3D page-flipping effect
• Offers a wide range of interactive elements
• At the moment, owns the fastest pdf converter on the market
• Offers a large variety of fully customizable templates for all sorts of publications
• It integrates an intuitive and fast responding design studio
• Various privacy options: public; unlisted (not indexed by any search engines; access is
• through a direct link); password-protected; private (shared publications with specific
• people)
• Allows users to download a QR Code for each of their publication

What is the best animation software for beginners?

If you are a beginner and looking for animation software, we suggest you choose from Pencil2D, Synfig Studio, OpenToonz, Animaker, Cartoon Animator 4, DigiCel Flipbook, Toon Boom Harmony, or Moho Debut. Take a look at their features, tools, pricing, etc, and compare whichever suits your requirements.