Overview
Animation is my hobby, and in this post I outline the animation software I have used.
Pencil2D
Pencil2D is an excellent program for beginners to intermediates. They key benefit is a simple, intuitive user interface.
There are actually two versions:
- Pencil, the original software. I believe the final version of this is 0.4.4b.
- Pencil2D, the current software. This is still being worked on, and is available on GitHub.
I must admit that I mostly use the original Pencil 0.4.4b software. This has some bugs, so I recommend saving often.
I personally have contributed code to this program.
OpenToonz
OpenToonz is a good program for expert animators. This has (I am told) all features that are expected in a professional animation software. But the software is free!
OpenToonz does sometimes crash, so do use the auto-save feature, and save manually often. If you are a beginner to intermediate, you may be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of features. There is good documentation online on “readthedocs”.
I have also personally contributed code to this program.