Videos are hot!! and that time has gone when the animated videos are only watched by the children. Today, the most popular video sharing platform Youtube is filled with lots of animated videos such as movies, cartoons, tutorials and more… We also use the animated videos for the campaign and advertising purposes to run an effective marketing campaign. So, whether you are a student, beginner or an expert in animated video field and looking for some best Open source animation software solutions then you are at right place.
We have listed the top open source video animating tools those are available free of cost to download and use. You can use them to create animated videos or cartoon with your voice for having fun. This animation software will help you to create 2D and 3D animations. If you are a student and don’t have enough money to purchase costly animation software you can turn your ideas into reality using these best free open source animation software for windows users.
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Best 2D and 3D Open source software for Animation
Blender
Blender is not only the animation tool but a free and open source 3D creation suite. It is a complete package for 3D computer designing and comes with a set of tools for creating animated 3D models, video games, visual effects, films and more. It also has an integrated game engine.
Blender 3D animated software is a cross-platform and can run on Linux, Windows and MacOs computers with same features and performance. This open source animation software features 3D modeling, graphics editing, body simulation, animating, sculpting, camera tracking, video editing, composting and more…
The beginners have to give some time to this tool to learn how to use all its tools and functions. But even 50 percent knowledge of the Blender usage can create extraordinary animations.
The Blender is a community-based project that means a professional animator or video game developer can also modify its source code to add some extra functionality.
Blender Opensource animation and 3D software features
- Rendering
- Modeling
- Animation
- VFX
- Simulation
- Pipeline
- Game creation
- Video editing
- Scripting
- Fully Customize UI support
- And more…
Synfig – Open-source 2D animation software
Synfig Studio is another great open source animation software in 2D category. The synfig helps you to create cartoons and animation movies, though it is not as much as Blender but if your requirement is only 2D animation then you can easily achieve what you want. This is animation software is free to download and use on Windows, Linux, and MacOs. Also, a person can easily insert soft shading to his drawing by using the gradient routes feature of Synfig without sketching them separately.
The software is interface is divided into four sections to easily handle the tools and editing space. The sections are:
- Editing panel
- Tools Windows
- Navigation panel
- Parameters section
Features of Synfig Studio
- Multi-platform support
- Multiple layer support
- Supports distortions, geometric, filters, gradients, transformations, fractal and a few others layers.
- A bone system to capture the bitmap images from the animation.
- Gives control over vector art
- Support sound inputs
- Can sync soundtracks with the animation using the sound layer
- Jack integration, a full audio editor for Linux users.
- And More…
Pencil2D – Open source Animation Software
A Pencil2D is the one of the best Open source 2D animation or drawing program that has a clean interface with all main tools you need for design. The Picture has its own illustration tool to show the graphics. It supports multiple layers, bitmaps and vector images too. Pencil2D is also a cross-platform and free to download animation software for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux.
Features:
- Rough sketches for animation
- Real-time suggestions
- Support color to sketch
- Zooming in or out
- Music inset supported
- Drawing can export to AVI, PNG, TGA, GIF and other formats.
- Documentation and Tutorial available
- And more…
Krita
Krita is a 10-years-old painting and animation tool developed for texture and matte artist, illustrators, comics, and VFX industry. The amateur and professional both can use it using many common features. The Krita is digital painting and animation graphics editor.
Krita Features
- Low-distract UI
- Color management support
- Brush Engines
- Wrap-around mode
- OpenGL accelerated canvas
- Brush Stabilizers
- Resource Manager
- Vector artwork support
- Non-destructive layers
- And More…
OpenToonz
The OpenToons is the opensource and based on the premium software called “Toonz”. It comes with all basic tools to create cartoon animations along with a scanning tool “GTS” especially for animation. This opensource animation software has a plug-in effect for image processing and developed by using SDK and anyone can add effects to OpenToonz using the SDK. It is compatible with four types of scanning black and white, coloured, with r without binarization and the settings for scanning can be saved. Also, the multiple effects plugins are available such as LightGlare, LightBloom, Waveglass, BlurcurlNoise and more… The OpenToonz works with both Windows and MacOS.
Features:
- Anti-aliased lines support
- Smooth High-definition image data processing
- Time sheet-type interface
- GUI using the node tree.
- Real scale of images can be handled
- Plugins system to add more effects
- Support both raster and vector images
- Provide interconversion between the sequence images
- And more…
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Maefloresta -TulipTube Desk
TupiTube Desk is another free and opensource 2D animation tool for desktop running on Windows, Mac, and Linux. This tools especially for beginners and amateur artists.
Thanks for the post! even though the post is a year old, it is up-to-date. Keep up the good job!