Top 2D Animation Software List in 2020 (PAID AND FREE)

Animation has conquered the internet and captivated the world for years. 2D animation software can help you out in making funny cartoons, illustrations, explainer videos, or informative shorts. You will be amazed to know that 2D animation is rooted deep in the history of movie-making and has now become a wild thing. 2D animation software also comes in handy to make illustrations for games and mobile apps.

Creating exciting and intricate stories has become an interesting and fun activity with the advent of so much 2D animation software. Are you scavenging for the top 2D animation software? Then you are in the right place. We have scoured a list of the best options to help you out in the hunt.

1. Mango Animate

Mango Animate rank among the easiest yet most powerful 2D animation software and video presentation maker to help you in creating engaging videos. You don’t need any coding skills and experience to use it. Making amazing videos has never been so fun. Do you have to make an explainer video, business video presentation, animated video presentation, storytelling video, product video demo, or anything else? Mango Animate has covered it all for you. To your surprise, you can enjoy all the features of this amazing software for free.

Top 2D Animation Software Mango Animate
Mango Animate: most powerful 2D animation software and video presentation maker


2. Toon Boom Harmony

When it comes to digital production, you can count on Toon Boom Harmony, as it is considered the gold standard in the field of 2D animation. You can create art and emotion in a variety of styles with this end-to-end animation software. Whether you prefer to have cutout or paperless animations, Toon Boom Harmony can be the best choice to set the trends for top-notch and award-winning animations. The latest in shading, lighting, and special effects can give more life to your series and characters. It has three packages named essential, advanced, and premium.

2D Animation Software: Toon Boom Harmony
Toon Boom Harmony: a Leading 25 Years Animation Software

3. TV Paint

You will get all the essential tools and feature to animate efficiently without the paper stage. Navigating across the images in the timeline, like image marks or bookmarks, is handy with this 2D animation software. The flip-flop feature enables the user to customize the preview of the animation by conveniently setting up the shortcuts. The out-of-pegs can be used to adjust the Light table display through rotating, moving, and scaling. You are going to love this tool with improved features.

2D Animation Software: TVPaint Animation
TV Paint: Animation Sofware Can Create Pro Animation From Home

4. Moho

Moho was formerly known as Anime Studio and offers everything you need to create eye-catching animations for presentations, games, illustrations, storyboards, etc. You can expand your animation toolkit, which will improve the quality and workflow of your projects. It is now offering brand-new freehand drawing capabilities, bitmap options, a bone-rigging system, and powerful vector animation tools. This 2D animation software is an all-in-one tool for digital artists and professionals. 

2D Animation Software: MOHO
Moho 2D Animation Software: Used In OSCAR Nominated Films

5. Synfig Studio

This is an open-source and free 2D animation software trusted by hundreds of digital artists. By Synfig Studio, you can transform any vector image into another form as it offers powerful tools to give you full command over your vector artwork. Calculating the frames has never been so handy. You just need to set the key positions, and Synfig will calculate the in-between frames automatically.

open-source and free 2D animation software:  Synfig Studio
Synfig Studio: Open Source and Free 2D Animation Software

6. Adobe Animate CC

You can design interactive and alluring animations for TV shows, games, series, and the web through Adobe Animate. This software can bring banner ads and cartoons to life with the terrific feature that it offers. Artists can create animated avatars and doodles quickly and effortlessly as compared to other tools available. It also has the option of publishing the animation across different platforms with a single click. This is among the cheapest and most cost-efficient tools available in the market.

Top 2D Animation Software Adobe Animate CC
Premier 2D animation software: Adobe Animate CCPremier software: Adobe Animate CC

7. Pencil 2D

Pencil 2D animation tool is among the most lightweight and easy-to-use software. You can focus easily on animating to create life-life designs and animations. It allows you to switch between vector and rasters workflows seamlessly, allowing you to ink and paint effortlessly. Pencil 2D is a cross-platform tool that you can run on macOS, Windows, Linux, and FreeBSD. To add a little spice to all these features, it is open-source and completely free to use. No matter if you use it personally or commercially, the features can help you out in every project.

Top 2D Animation Software: Pencil2d Animation
Top 2D Animation Software: Pencil2D Animation, It is Open-Source and Free.

8. Opentoonz

It offers a wide range of cool and useful in-house effects, which you can use seamlessly to make animations, illustrations, and storyboards. Opentoonz allows you to edit the code extensively to make the changes of your choice. So, once the user has got enough knowledge and expertise about this tool, he can bend and mold the toons to his whim. But for beginners, getting started with this software can be a little bit daunting. You don’t have to pay anything for this 2D animation software, as it is an open-source tool.

Top 2D Animation Software: Opentoonz
Top 2D Animation Software: Opentoonz

9. Clip Studio Paint

It is a type of 2D animation software that combines CoreRETAS, Paintman, Stylos, and other RETAS suits into this single software. This is available for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X both. You can handle a lot of animation productions with this tool varying from digital drawing, tracing, and exporting using QuickTime and Adobe Flash. You will also find the airbrushing tool to make your animations more life-like. 

Top 2D Animation Software: Madara Retas Studio
Clip Studio Paint: Draw and Painting Animation Software for The Artists

Wrapping Up

There is a plethora of 2D animation software, and choosing the best one can be challenging. To connect with your audience, you need some visuals to convey your message effectively, whether you want to increase the sales of a business or want to earn some bucks through funny videos. Thus, it would help if you recked your brain before making the final decision. It is advised that you should check out the features that the software offers along with the price that you need to pay to use them.


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