Top 10 2025D Animation Software in XNUMX – [Free & Paid]

2D animation, or Flash-style animation, is easy to create for any movie. But does this 2D animation require drawing skills?

No, that's not actually true.

The software we are discussing here comes with frame by frame feature which means easy working and much more.

Yes, these tools are “easy for everyone” to use and create 2D animations.

Animation is created using a 2D animation software, created by adding all frames simultaneously. Hand-drawing is necessary in this case, and Onion Skinning helps create the subsequent frames.

This technology has helped us display and understand any facts easily and quickly. Children have always enjoyed cartoons produced in 2D, but they have become even more popular in this decade. Here, in this article, we have listed the best 2D animation software for beginners and professionals to create stunning cartoons and animations.

Animation software can create videos and animations quickly and easily. Some of these tools require drawing skills if you want to create animations for professional purposes. Adobe Flash Animation is best for creating animations from graphics.

However, there are many free and paid 2D animation software programs available to make animation easy. There are a variety of animation tools you can choose from depending on your skills.

For beginners, Pencil 2D and Pivot Animator are the best tools for easily creating animated movies. While OpenToonz is best for students, Pivot Animator offers easy-to-use tools and tools for children.

For professional uses, inexpensive 2D animation software like Adobe Animate and Crazy-Talk are among the best 2D animation software programs for creating stunning professional animated movies.

Although Toon Boom Harmony and Toon Boom Animate Pro are very expensive and highly professional tools that even Disney uses, Toon Boom Harmony is the best software for creating 2D animation characters.

Uses of 2D animation software:

Depending on many factors, 2D animation is the best choice for creating animated films and other 2D graphics. There are several features of good 2D animation software.

• Helps create SWF files and other file formats (such as AVI, MOV, BMP, GIF).
• It is easy to create movement in animation.
• It has been chosen by game developers, cartoon creators, artists and recently on advertisements.
• Characters can be easily created in the graphics using graphics. It also allows drawing directly within the program.
• Professionals, students as well as children can easily use these tools.

So, let's discuss the best traditional 2D animation software for creating animations quickly and easily. These programs can be used on both Windows and Mac operating systems to create animations for both personal and professional use.

1. CrazyTalk Animator 3

CrazyTalk Animator 3 is a smart and professional 10D animation software. It is one of the best XNUMXD animation software. The reason CrazyTalk is so popular is because of the large number of templates available. CrazyTalk can add voiceover and change the character style. Along with this, it can easily convert text to speech. Most popularly, it has the ability to easily convert images to cartoon characters. Reallusion's CrazyTalk allows the developer to move cartoon characters from XNUMX different angles to create professional-looking animations.

Positives:

• A very professional tool for making real-time animation movies.
• Allows recording audio directly from microphone or text to speech.
• Best G3 characters.
• 3D animations can be added to 2D characters. Another feature worth mentioning is the 3D camera feature.

Negatives:

It is a professional tool, as a beginner, the user will not be able to handle CrazyTalk easily.
Lacks a tutorial for making beginner level animations.
It requires great drawing skills.

2.Open Toonz

OpenToonz is an open-source 2D animation software. OpenToonz is a free, top-of-the-line 2D animation software developed by Digital Video SPA in Italy. The best part of this software is its extensive array of tools for animating any object in a variety of styles. OpenToonz can adjust animated characters to motion captured by onion skinning. OpenToonz is used in animated shows like Futurama. OpenToonz is completely free to use and allows you to create traditional 2D animation.

Positives:

• Supported on Mac OS X, Windows OS and Linux.
• It's an open source 2D animation software. Completely free.
• OpenToonz is used in many professional presentations which makes this tool really popular and trustworthy.
• Supports 4 types of scanning that turns hand drawings into digital cartoon characters.

Negatives:

• OpenToonz animation software reportedly crashes frequently when running a live project. It requires a lot of RAM.
• It doesn't automatically create new frames. You have to draw and adjust all the moves.

3. Show Boom Harmony

Toon Boom Harmony 14 is another great professional XNUMXD animation tool that excels at digitally drawing on scanned drawings. Toon Boom is one of the best XNUMXD animation software for producing puppet animated movies. Toon Boom is completely professional and requires extensive drawing skills. This is why Toon Boom is so popular with artists and cartoonists.

Positives:

• You can choose a transparent background for the animation and fill it with colors of your choice.
• If you become an expert in Toon Boom Harmony, you will be a master of 2D animation.
• Comes with different animation effects.

Negatives:

• Since Toon Boom Harmony is a very professional tool, beginners may not control it easily at first.
• The price is too high.
• You will need to save each scene individually.

4. Moho (Anime Studio)

From our list, Moho is the best paid professional 12D animation software. Moho Pro XNUMX is the latest software for starting digital animation projects. This tool is superior to Toon Boom when it comes to vector-based animation and stop motion.

Positives:

• Moho Pro 12 is available for Mac OS X and Windows OS.
• Moho is popular due to its user-friendly interface.
• Lower price than Toon Boom and Adobe.
• You can record audio directly and change the sound effects of that audio.
• You can upload your animations directly to YouTube and Facebook.

Negatives:

• Anime Studio lacks environmental effects like fog, rain, etc.
• Comic animation is not good in Moho.
• In the trial version, you cannot import any files into the program and you cannot export animations in Flash, AVI, and Quicktime formats.

5. Synfig Studio

Synfig is another open-source animation software like OpenToonz. It's completely free and available for Mac, Linux, and Windows OS. Synfig is capable of mapping graphics and creating characters with ease. It's a better alternative to the expensive Adobe Animate CC.

Positives:

• Synfig is an open source animation software that is free to use.
• This tool has a lot of guides or tutorials.
• Available on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS.
• When it comes to performance, Synfig is much better than OpenToonz.

Negatives:

• Synfig requires downloading several programs (4 to 5) to run and work with.
• Floating window (GIMP) is the worst part of this program.

6. Tupi

Tupi is a basic 2D animation software that uses automatic frames to create animations. Also known as TupiTube, it is available for both Mac and Windows OS. This software is a very basic product, developed for children to create short animated films.

Positives:

• Best for kids and beginners.
• It's completely free.
• You only need beginner-level drawing skills. Offers SVG graphics.
• Tupi is available on Mac, Linux and Windows OS.
• Tupi also introduced Motion Tweening.

Negatives:

• Lack of advanced and basic processing of cartoon graphics.
• Very basic drawing tools.
• You should not use Tupi even for your personal use. It is best for learning only.
• It's a beta version. It needs development.

7. Adobe Animate CC

Adobe Animate is the best 2D animation software for creating animations and Flash graphics. This professional XNUMXD animation tool can scan a drawing and convert it to a letter (GXNUMX). Adobe Animate creates animation based on rotation points. Adobe Animate CC is widely used for animating sequential information.

• More tools available in Adobe Animate CC.
• The program has a lot of templates.
• Adobe Animate delivers professional graphics quality.
• Adobe Animate CC is available on Windows.

Negatives:

• It's not free. You have to pay to use it.
• Adding and editing audio is a critical task in Adobe Animate CC.

8. Stop Motion Studio 2D

If you're looking for the best 2D animation software for your iPad or Android device, Stop Motion Studio XNUMXD is the best option. Stop Motion Studio allows you to create animations from your mobile device simply by adding images to frames.

Positives:

• Stop Motion Studio provides animation from your mobile phone, tablet, or iPad.
• This tool can click on hand-drawn images and create an animation from them. Imports from hard drives.
• Available on platforms such as iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android, and Windows.
• You can easily add sound using Stop Motion Studio.
• You can upload your prepared animations directly to YouTube and Facebook.

Negatives:

• This program cannot import images directly from scanners.
• You cannot change the audio style loaded into Stop Motion Studio.

9. Pivot Animator

Pivot Animator is an easy-to-use 2D animation program for beginners. It can import graphics and create basic-level frame-by-frame animations. However, it's intended for beginners only, not advanced 2D animation.

Positives:

• Pivot Animator is a free and easy 2D animation tool for beginners.
• You can use the spacebar to copy frames.
• You can add a simple frame to create a 2D animation video.
• No drawing skills are required for Pivot Animator. Plenty of templates are available here.

Negatives:

• Advanced drawing tools are not available in Pivot Animator.
• This tool is for children. Not for professional use.

10.Pencil2D

Pencil2D is another excellent basic 2D animation software for beginners. However, it has more features than Pivot Animator. The frame creation and drawing tools are better in PencilXNUMXD for learning purposes.

Positives:

• Pencil2D offers advanced drawing tools for beginners. Another 2D animation software for beginners.
• You can copy and delete frames in Pencil2D.
• Available for Mac, Windows, and Linux users.

Negatives:

• Pencil2D drawing skills required.
• You can't use Pencil2D for professional purpose because it doesn't have good graphics.

conclusion:

We have discussed all the best 2D animation software for professional use as well as for beginners, students, and kids. You can try any of these as per your requirements. PencilXNUMXD and Pivot Animator are very basic level animation tools that are best to start with if you want to learn. Also, for professional use, you can go for CrazyTalk Animator and Adobe Animate CC.