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Animated videos are a great instrument for video creators and help businesses to reach their audience. This guide takes you by the hand and walks you through 5 of the best animation software options out there.
Do you know why animated videos are gaining so much attention? Well, it is a fact that our brain responds to visual content quickly as compared to the text, or audio content.
Due to the importance and massive demand for animated videos, nowadays people are on the hunt for the best animation software. But, in this internet world, it has become very difficult to find the animation software that ticks all the boxes for you.
What Is Animation Software?
Animation software is a set of programs that allow designers and animators to create animated movies, TV shows, and games. It essentially turns hand-drawn images into digital artwork.
Animation software has been around for decades, and so have several of the programs in this guide, including Toon Boom, Moho, CelAction, and the Toonz software behind OpenToonz. There is still plenty of room for improvement in terms of speed, quality, and creativity.
When animation software first started, it was very complex and expensive. Nowadays, animation software is available for free or at an affordable price.
In this article, we have come up with the best animation software apps that you can use to create stunning and engaging animated videos.
Best Animation Software
So, without any further delay, let us take a closer look at the best animation software tools:
Tools in this guide
- Toon Boom Harmony
- Stop Motion Studio
- OpenToonz
- Moho Pro 14
- CelAction2D
1. Toon Boom Harmony
The first 2D animation software in our list is Toon Boom Harmony. It has gained a lot of attention in the industry in the last few years. The world’s most famous animation studios like Pipeline studios, SAEROM, UBISOFT, etc. are using it.
Features Of The Toon Boom Harmony Animation Software
- It comes with the powerful tools which you can use to create almost any type of animation.
- The brush engine inside this software uses the advanced vector drawing technology.
- With the help of the Toon Boom Harmony, you can make 2D animation for all types of games that are compatible with the different game engines like Unity, and others.
- You can add various effects like motion blur inside this software.
- It allows you to add various angles on 2D animation video.
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Toon Boom Harmony is compatible with both Mac and Windows operating systems. As per their official website, you require a video card by Nvidia, Intel or Radeon, etc. to use it. Minimum memory is 8 GB, and 32 GB is what they recommend.
You can use the Toon Boom Harmony software for 14 days without paying a single dollar. But after a period of 14 days, you have to upgrade.
The important standout point about Toon Boom is that it is highly efficient for professional production. It is studio software with Essentials, Advanced, and Premium plans, not a low-cost tool.
Toon Boom Harmony is the most complete professional animation software being used in the 2D animation industry. Its comprehensive features include traditional paperless, cutout (both rigging and animation), as well as compositing and effects tools
2. Stop Motion Studio
Have you seen movies like Wallace and Gromit? Stop Motion Studio allows you to create such incredible movies without wasting your precious hours. It is the one stop solution for making stop-action animated movies and videos.
Features Of The Stop Motion Studio Animation Software
- Stop Motion Studio comes with more than a dozen sound clips and background music that you can use to add background sound in your animated videos. You can also record your own voice inside the software.
- With the help of the green screen feature, you can change the background of your video.
- With this software, you can make human-like animated characters. That means you can give human-like facial expressions to your characters.
- You can also import any video, image and audio clip inside the software.
The best thing about Stop Motion Studio is that it is compatible in most of the devices. Whether you are using a tablet, mobile, computer or laptop, it works perfectly.
Stop Motion Studio is beginner friendly and is often used with students. The free app on iPhone, iPad, and Android covers basic frame-by-frame capture. Green screen and the sound library are part of the full version. There is no free version for Mac or Windows; those are a one-time purchase.
Stop Motion Studio is an app, available for iOS and Android, which turns a collection of images and audio into videos. It is super simple to use and, as such, is ideal for younger students – with some assistance.
3. Opentoonz
Are you searching for free animation software? Then, OpenToonz is the perfect choice for you. It is an open source animation software that means anyone can use for commercial or personal applications.
Features Of The Opentoonz Software
- OpenToonz can handle both vector and raster images and allows the usage of anti-aliased lines.
- Inside the software, you will get effects like affected incident light, wavy distortion, etc.
- It is available in both Japanese and English language versions.
Talking about the system requirements, OpenToonz can work on Windows as well as on Mac. You require an Intel core processor and 4GB RAM to run this software on your computer.
OpenToonz is used for professional studio animation, including Studio Ghibli productions, not only personal projects.
You can create high-quality animation graphics with it. On the other side of the spectrum, you don’t have to pay any fees at all to use it as OpenToonz is 100% free to use.
OpenToonz is software for producing a 2D animation. It is based on the software *Toonz*, which was developed by Digital Video S.p.A. in Italy, customized by [Studio Ghibli](https://filmlifestyle.com/best-studio-ghibli-movies/), and has been used for creating its works for many years.
4. Moho Pro 14
Moho is a world-renowned software as it was used in the production of the Oscar-nominated movies like Song of the Sea and The Breadwinner. Those films used Moho, not specifically the 2016 release Moho Pro 12. The current product is Moho Pro 14, and the current installer is 14.5. It is the must-have animation software for video professionals and artists in this digital world.
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Features of the Moho Pro 14 animation software:
- The revolutionary smart bone feature of Moho Pro separates it from the other tools. This feature allows you to remove the distortion produced near the elbows and knees of the characters. The same feature is used to monitor the facial expressions and the body movement of the character.
- Moho Pro permits you to import your photoshop files inside this software. Due to this feature, you don’t have to worry about your saved photoshop files.
- With Moho Pro, you can control the layer order, layer visibility and can review your animation before rendering it.
- Another great feature of this software is its ability to bounce any character in the animated video.
You can try Moho Pro 14 free for 30 days. Though it has powerful features, its cost is quite high. The license is a one-time purchase, not a subscription.
So, if you are looking for the software that gives you a friendly interface and saves you time then, Moho Pro 14 is suitable for you.
The big hook of Moho is its ease of use for creating reusable 2D rigs with a tremendous amount of control. This makes it great for [TV show](https://filmlifestyle.com/tv-show-treatment/)s, web series and even for creating video game animation. Moho goes all in on its vector rigged characters. Newer releases added drawing and frame-by-frame tools, but rigging is still the main reason to choose it.
5. Celaction2d
The last animation software on our list is CelAction 2D. It is a simple and easy to use software that is used for creating TV series, commercials, and movies.
Features Of The Celaction 2D Animation Software
- Inside CelAction 2D, you will get more than 60 effects for creating an engaging and dynamic video.
- The advanced syncing technology inside this software helps you to manage all the animated scenes properly. The real-time animation preview window inside CelAction2D also saves your lot of time.
- CelAction2D gives you an added advantage of exporting into both PDF and Animatic format. You can also export sketches in the form of the image file.
- In this software, you will find auto scrubbing features and multiple audio tracks with volume control.
- CelAction2D provides the full support of graphics tablets.
The only downside of this software is that there is no native Mac version. CelAction says it can run under Boot Camp, Parallels, or VMware Fusion, including Apple silicon via Parallels, but those setups are not guaranteed. If you want to use it on Windows, you must have a PC with an Intel processor and at least 4 GB RAM.
CelAction2D currently comes in two editions: Studio and Educational. You can get more information about each of these versions here.
CelAction2D is professional 2D animation software used for many award-winning and commercially successful films, TV series and advertising. It is the software of choice for many leading animators and studios, and represents the state-of-the-art in high quality, high volume production.
Best Animation Software – Final Words
That ends our list of the best animation software that you can use to create amazing graphics and animated videos.
Making an animation video is an easy task if you have the right skills and software. Explore the above-listed tools yourself to get the best out of it.
Thanks for reading this article and if you know any other animation software that is working best for you then, please let us know by commenting below.
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