Animation is one of the most prominent visual art forms of the modern era. An animator needs to understand the composition of motion and rendering tools as animation requires a profound knowledge about 2D and 3D models. The main point is to convey the message and have the aptitude to tell stories.
In this article, we offer you an overview of the 3D animation programs available in the market. In case you are more inclined to traditional programs, we have included 2D animation programs.
Here is a compilation of 15 best free options of animation software programs, including 2D and 3D animations for Windows and MAC.
Product Name | 3D Animation Software Price | Free Trial | Beginner’s Friendly | OS |
Blender | Blender is free 3D animation software for PC | Available | Tutorials available on its website regarding how to use the software. | Mac OS X and Windows |
Powtoon | Price starts at about ₹1135 per month | Available | Powtoon 3D animation software for beginners offers step by step video tutorial over how to get started. | Windows, Android, iPhone/iPad, Mac, Web-based |
Source Filmmaker | Free 3D animation software | Available | In the beginning it is going to be tough but with time and practice, you can master the skills required for using this free 3D animation software. | Windows (Steam) |
Autodesk Maya | Pricing plans start at ₹11,065 per month | Available | Auto Desk Maya offers a powerful 3D package, which is not very easy to learn. | Windows, macOS X, RHEL, and Fedora. |
Toon Boom Harmony | Pricing starts at ₹925 per month | 21-day free trial | Toon Boom has been designed for professionals in the field of animation and has industry standards attached to it. | Windows, macOS X, Web |
K-3D | K-3D is free 3D animation software for Mac. | Available | Built on popular rendering motor ‘Motorman’, K-3D is good free 3D animation software for beginners also. | Windows, macOS, source code (for developers) |
VideoScribe by Sparkol | Monthly Plan starts at ₹1245 | 7-day free trial | Short video tutorials available on the website of the software for turning a blank canvas into beautiful animation. | Web-based, iOS, Android, Windows, macOS X |
Biteable | Premium plan for around ₹570 a month. | Unavailable | Biteable is simple to use and absolutely beginner friendly. | Online, macOS X, Windows |
KeyShot | KeyShot is free 3D animation software for beginners. | Available | KeyShot is not only easy but also the fastest 3D rendering animation software. | Cloud, SaaS, Web, macOS X Windows |
OpenToonz | Free 3D animation software | Available | OpenToonz is beginner friendly 2D animation software. | Windows, mac OS X |
Animaker | The Startup plan starts at about ₹1350 per month | Free plan is available for individual users. | Animaker software is easy to use and end users can take help of video tutorials to further ease the learning curve. | Cloud, SaaS, Web |
Synfig Studio | Free 3D animation software for beginners. | Available | Synfig Studio offers professional edition for developing high quality animation content. It is more friendly for those with the prior knowledge of animation making software for pc. | Windows, Linux, and macOS X |
Pencil2D | Pencil2D is a free animation software for beginners | Available | Pencil2D is simple in design and easy to use. You also got access to multiple instructional videos for learning how to use the software. | Windows, Linux, and macOS X |
Toontastic | Toontastic is an easy to use free 3D animation software solution | Available | Toontastic is a story telling application, specially designed for kids. It’s a great 3D animation software for beginners. | Android; iOS |
Animation Desk | Free 3D animation software | Available | Animation Desk has an intuitive interface with good number of pencil sketching and pencil test animation tools that make it one of the best 3D animation software for beginners. | Android, iOS, Mac and Windows |
Aurora 3D Animation Maker | It’s a free animation software for PC with 3 paid support plans based on the number of units. | Available | This animation software for PC is beginner friendly. | Windows 7,8,10 (32-bit and 64-bit) & Mac OS |
Mixamo | Free animation software for PC | Available | Ideal animation software for professional game developers. | Windows and Mac |
Adobe After Effects | Buy the software at a price of around Rs 31109 per year on Techjockey. | Available for a seven-day period | Adobe After Effects offers video tutorial support under two different categories- Experienced Beginners Select the Beginners option for learning the tricks of the trade. | Windows 7/10 (64-bit) and Mac OS version 10.13, 10.14, 10.15 |
Rive | Two paid plans are available. Yearly plan at Rs 1030 and a monthly plan for Rs 1545 | Available | Rive is a powerful animation app preferred mostly by developers and designers. There are good number of video tutorials available to help beginners understand how to use the product. | Windows |
Daz Studio | Daz Studio animation app for PC is available for free of charge. | Available | Daz Studio offers fast animation processes that are more ideal for professionals and experienced users. | Windows 7, 8, 10 & Vista (32 bit and 64 bit). It also supports Mac OS X 10.6 and above for 32 bit as well as Mac OS X 10.7 and above 64 bit |
Nowadays most animation software is compatible with multiple devices. PCs, with operating systems such as Windows and Linux, are compatible with most of the best animation software. Here are some of the animation software solutions that are compatible with PCs.
Best for sculpting, rigging and scripting
Blender animation is a 3D animation software, open-source and free in nature. It is comprised of critical tools like simulation, modelling, video editing, motion tracking, compositing and rigging for making 3D animations. Inbuilt also are these options for animation pipelines in 2D format.
Aside from tools for rotating camera at 360 degrees, panning and tracking tilting, there are also available in Blender features for doing object tracking. The Python API helps with customizing the user interface for quick navigation even while you work on different projects.
Blender has been created in such a manner that both beginners and expert animators can work on it effortlessly.
Key Features:
Pros
Cons
Pricing: Blender is a free and open source 3D animation software.
Platforms: Windows, macOS X.
Best for doing advanced animations like CGI animation
Powtoon is a web-based animation video and presentation software, which provides animators a cloud-based platform on which they can create animations for several different purposes such as online advertisements, presentations, informative videos, video guides, tutorials, and manuals.
This 3D animation maker online has a user-friendly interface with the help of which animations can be created and shared easily. This free animation maker also provides features to create, save, and share animated videos with the help of Google Drive. Powtoon animation software provides various presets and tools such as clips, images, voice-overs, soundtracks, and sound effects to assist animators in different projects.
Key Features:
Pros
Cons
Pricing: Powtoon pricing has a free plan and four paid yearly subscription options: Starter at about ₹1135 per month, Pro at about ₹1348 per month, Pro+ at about ₹4186 per month, and Agency at about ₹7025 per month.
Platforms: Windows, Android, iPhone/iPad, Mac, Web-based
Best for making animation VFX films or comedy sketches with characters
This is one of the most exciting 3D animation programs available on Steam game engine. This free animation maker lets animators create a movie inside the game engine. This free animation software for windows uses all the different assets present in the game. So that the assets of the game can be configured by SFM in the movie and vice versa.
Key Features:
Pros
Cons
Source Filmfare Pricing: It’s a free 3D animation software for beginners.
Platforms: Windows (Steam)
Best for doing powerful texturing and simulation
3D animation software Maya is one of the leading free animation making software for PC in the market with industry-standard animation quality. Maya is best used for adding animation and visual effects into commercial movies. After attending a basic course, using the software is much easy and hassle-free. Maya 3D animation software is for not just commercial movies but also video games, tv series, etc.
Key Features:
Pros
Cons
3D Animation Software Price: Maya is free animation maker for students and educators. For other animators, Maya also offers a free trial for these plans; Monthly at ₹11,065, for 1 year at ₹87,668 and for 3 years at ₹2,36,619
Platforms: Windows, macOS X, RHEL, and Fedora.
Best for drawing 2D animations
Toon Boom Harmony is a user-friendly 3D animation software for beginners and pros that helps create art pieces, storyboards and short animated clips. Although the software might look complex in the beginning, it provides a gamut of different tools to explore creative roads. It offers vectors as well as bitmap tools for projects.
Key Features:
Pros
Cons
3D Animation Software Price: Toon Boom harmony provides 21 days free trial after which, it offers three annual plans – Harmony Essentials at about ₹925 per month, Harmony Advanced at ₹2350 per month, and Harmony Premium at ₹4330 per month.
Platforms: Windows, macOS X, Web.
Best Free 3D Animation Software for Mac
MAC is considered to be the ideal device for animation due to its robust configuration and seamless rendering capabilities. In fact, some of the top Hollywood film production houses use 3D animation software for MAC for their animation requirements. Here are some free animation software solutions for MAC / iOS.
Best for 3D modelling and animation
K-3D is a 3D-modelling and animation making software that combines built-in plugins with a visualization pipeline architecture to provide a flexible yet powerful platform for animation artists. This free 3D animation software allows users to create unique combinations in their work.
K-3D offers several features to make an artist’s work as easy as possible.
Key Features:
Pros
Cons
Pricing: It’s a free 3D animation software for Mac.
Platforms: Windows, macOS, source code (for developers)
Best for drawing whiteboard animations
VideoScribe by Sparkol is one of the best whiteboard animation software programs available in the market. VideoScribe 3D animation software for Mac offers users efficient tools to create, upload, and edit videos with the help of its cloud-based services that can be accessed from anywhere.
Key Features:
Pros
Cons
3D Animation Software Price: It offers a free 7-day trial, after which it offers three plans; Monthly Plan for ₹1245, Yearly Plan at about ₹570, Quarterly Plan at ₹2485
Platforms: Web-based, iOS, Android, Windows, macOS X
Best for adding studio-quality effects to animation & VFX
Biteable is one of the most user-friendly and straightforward 3D animated video creator software that can be used for several purposes. With Biteable, animators get tools for adding colours, texts, photos and sounds in videos in a drag-and-drop template.
Key Features:
Pros
Cons
Pricing and Plans:
There are two primary plans available for Biteable. The free version allows you to create five projects for monthly use. On the other hand, a premium plan is about ₹570 a month, offering the option of HD quality shares and unlimited uploads.
Platforms: Online, macOS X, Windows
Best for making 3D renderings in real-time
KeyShot is an easy-to-use 3D rendering and 3D animation software programs that allows animation artists to create from simple models to sophisticated and visually stunning projects. One of its best features is that it provides real-time 3D rendering, which displays results as soon as it is finished. This decreases the time taken to create and complete the project.
Apart from this, KeyShot provides several other features for animation and 3D rendering.
Key Features:
Pros
Cons
Platforms: Cloud, SaaS, Web, macOS X Windows
Pricing: KeyShot is an entirely free animation software for Windows.
Best for changing picture styles & doing image processing
OpenToonz is a free and open source animation software that provides animators all the necessary tools for 2D animation. As it is open source, it lets developers and expert animators customise the software to suit their requirements.
Key Features:
Pros
Cons
Platforms: Windows, mac OS X
Pricing: OpenToonz is completely free and is open source 3D animation software.
Best Free 2D Animation Software
Animation was usually in 2D form before movies like Incredibles, Toy Story and Ice Age made 3D animations immensely popular.
In fact, some of the most popular children’s cartoons such as Mickey Mouse, Aladdin, Snow White, etc were made using traditional 2D animation techniques. Hence, 2D has become an integral part of animation. Given below are some of the top 2D Software Solutions.
Best for creating standout characters with 3D character animation
Animaker software is one of the most user-friendly free 3D animation software solutions. The best part about the software is its drag-and-drop UI. It can help animators create different types of animations with its modules extending to advertisements, manuals, and tutorial videos.
Moreover, it provides an extensive database of templates and animated objects. It isn’t limited to 3D animation but also offers tools to create 2D cartoons, infographics, and whiteboards.
It also provides additional features with the business account, which also contains the option to create 30-minute-long videos.
Key Features:
Pros
Cons
Pricing: Animaker provides a free plan and three annual plans – Personal at about ₹850 per month, Startup at about ₹1350 per month and Business at about ₹2770 per month.
Platform: Cloud, SaaS, Web
Best for vector tweening
The best 2D animation software, Synfig Studio is available for free of cost. The software can be used easily by both seasoned animators and beginners too. There are two versions available for free downloading- Development and Stable version. In the Stable version, you would find all essential features necessary for completing basic projects.
On the other hand, the development version provides some state-of-the-art experimental features for those who want to try their hand at innovative tools.
Key Features:
Pros
Cons
Price: It’s a free 2D animation software.
Compatibility: Windows, Linux, and macOS X
Best for making 3D animations hand drawn using vector graphics
Pencil 2D is a free and open-source animation software used for doing vector and bitmap animations. Create stunning animations with the software’s pen, brush and colour tools.
One of the best features of Pencil 2D is that its user interface is intuitive and minimalistic. Anyone, whether a beginner or an expert, can easily be able to understand and implement the features and tools it provides.
Key Features:
Pros
Cons
Price: It’s a free 2D animation software
Compatibility: Windows, Linux, and macOS X
Free 3D Animation Software for Android
With support from the best Android application software, end users have this option of creating animated sequences with ease. Free 3D animation software for Android can be used easily on smartphone devices. Here are some of the best 3d animation software free:
Best for creating 3D characters
The top 3D animation software, Toontastic, designed by Google Android and iOS users, provides a friendly user-interface to help animators tell stories using brilliantly executed animation characters and objects.
Key Features:
Pros
Cons
Pricing: It is free and easy-to use 3D animation software for Android.
Platforms: Android and iOS
Best for making storyboard animations and frame to frame animations
Animation Desk is another 3D animation software for Android that enables animators to create cartoons and animated stories on smartphones. It is a user-friendly software application where users can seamlessly create animation videos from scratch. It lets animators create artificially rendered graphics videos, PSD layers.
One of its best features of this best animation app for PC is to allow the import external clips and photos to your project as a layer layered form.
Key Features:
Pricing: It’s 3D animation software free for Android
Platforms: Apart from Android, it is also available on iOS, Mac, and Windows
Best Free 3D Animation Software for PC
Best for color toning & 3D character design
Use Aurora 3D Animation Maker for drawing stunning animations. Manage the length, playback and speed of all your animations with this best 3D animation software for PC and mobile. GIFs, image sequencing or designing web banner, you can perform all these design tasks successfully with Aurora 3D drawing software.
This 3D animation software for PC further helps add amazing special effects to text and logos. Professionals use the best animation software for PC to design web pages, edit videos and give limitless particle effects to their works.
Key features of Aurora 3D animation Software:
Pros:
Cons:
Pricing: The price of Aurora 3D animation software depends on the number of units you want and the required features.
Platforms: Windows & Mac OS
Best for drawing skeletal rigs
Cartoon characters, realistic images, or sci-fi content, you can create all types of animation videos using one of the best 3D animation software free for PC, Mixamo. Give life to all your animated video characters in illustrations and graphic art with this 3D animation software.
Sliders built-in within the software help with slowing down or speeding-up of animations for giving a closed/open appearance to animated objects. The software is also the best for developing professional-quality illustrations, games, movies, 3D characters and rigs.
Key features:
Pros:
Cons:
Pricing: Mixamo is a free 3D animation software that does not require any monthly or yearly subscription.
Platform: Windows and Mac
Best for adding visual effects to motion graphics
Adobe After Effects 3D animation software designed to add motion graphics and other kinds of visual effects to videos. You can also add dynamic movement to objects and interesting expressions to make the content livelier.
The 3D animation software Adobe After Effects offers inbuilt tools for creating rich videos with neon signs and underwater objects. The tool is further helpful in removing large objects. The motion blur feature of this best animation software for PC is quite useful in giving a realistic feel to video content.
Key Features of Adobe After Effects 3D Animation Software:
Pros:
Cons:
Platform: Windows 7/10 (64-bit) and Mac OS version 10.13, 10.14, 10.15
Price: Adobe After Affects CC is available for ₹ 31109 at Techjockey for one user per year.
Best for character rigging & 3D character animation
Create animated icons, game characters, onboarding screens and sophisticated interactions with Rive animation app. The 3D animation software freely lets you do regular modifications and iterations in a hassle-free manner. Thus, you don’t have to create any codes for building such designs.
The free 3D animation software helps with not just doing runtime manipulations but also animating all kinds of objects, mechanic or organic. One of the most robust features of Rive animation software is animation mixing that allows for blending and layering of 3D animations.
Key Features of Rive Animation Software:
Pros:
Cons:
Pricing: Rive currently has two paid plans available. They are-
• Yearly plan at Rs 1030
• Monthly plan for Rs 1545
Platforms: Rive is an online 3D animation platform that is web based
Best for developing detailed characters and doing dress modelling
Use Daz Studio animation for selecting the right kind of animation for your frame. The free animation software for PC offers a range of customization tools for creating beautiful animations, whether of people, environment, vehicles, animals, etc.
In the free 3D animation software, you would find rigged and textured 3D characters as well as models for building quick animations. With the software’s studio-class processing capabilities, you can develop amazing photorealistic images.
Key Features of Daz Studio:
Pros:
Cons:
Pricing: Daz Studio is one of the best free animation apps for PC
Platforms: Daz animation app for PC is available for Windows 7, 8, 10 & Vista (32 bit and 64 bit). It also supports Mac OS X 10.6 and above for 32 bit as well as Mac OS X 10.7 and above 64 bit.
FAQs
Animation can be defined as an illusionary effect of motion, that is produced with the help of sketches, images and shift in poses. These images (known as frames) are strung together and changed in succession at an extremely fast pace so that our eyes perceive it as a continuous scene.
Animation software enables artists to create scenes, frame-by-frame, with the help of still images. It is then strung together by the software to create an effect of transitory motion. While traditional animators draw each sketch frame-by-frame, modern animation uses techniques, with which, on image can be modified to transition into the next, smoothly.
There are two main types of animation software available in the market:
1. 2-dimensional (2D) Software: This type of animation software uses the 2D model. i.e. width and height for animation. In simple words, it gives an impression of a flat, sketch-like scene. This type of animation uses linear shades and shadows, rather than defined and realistic perspectives.
2. 3-dimensional (3D) Software: 3D animation software uses advanced techniques, where the scenes and characters are more defined and visually realistic. To put it simply, 3D animation imitates real life rather than a picture or sketch. Animations produced by a 3D animation software has defined shadows, shades and perspectives.
1. In advertising: Modern advertising uses a number of different animated characters to grab the attention of the audiences. Animation can evoke desired emotions if executed properly. Audiences can be influenced by their emotions. Hence, animation is a great tool for adverts.
2. For entertainment: a. Television programmes and cartoons have increased manifold in the last few decades and especially cater to the younger generation.
b. Animation serves an important utility of narrating stories of all types, comedy, dramatic or satirical, in the form of short films to older people.
c. Feature length video and film animations can be created using the software’s 3D/2D animation capabilities.
d. The software can further be used easily in video/console games, smartphones and computers.
3. For education and training: Animated sequences often work well within the field of education and training, when sensitive or thought-provoking treatments of a subject are needed.
Yes. There are a number of free and open-source animation software online.
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