85 percent of cyberspace users picket video content at least once a month. And people desire more.
In fact, 54 percent of folks think brands should be putting more video content out there.
Putting out video content isn't always like shooting fish in a barrel. Maybe you're running low on ideas. Or maybe you're camera shy. Or you don't accept the necessary equipment — not to mention the budget to learn it.
Luckily, in that location are some handy free tools you lot tin can use.
Yep, yous tin make animated videos for gratuitous (minus your time investment, of course).
Check out some of the best gratis blitheness software for beginners and experts, and everyone in betwixt.
Animaker
Platforms: web browser-based
Animaker is a free animation software for beginners, with piece of cake drag-and-driblet functionality and an intuitive interface to match. There are half-dozen cadre types of videos y'all can make with Animaker:
second
Infographics
Handcraft
Whiteboard
2.5D
Typography
Including full Hard disk drive support, both horizontal and vertical video layouts, and pre-made graphics to choose from, you tin create fun, blithe videos in no time.
Audio features include text-to-spoken language, the choice to add together background music and sound effects, and voiceover. You lot can cull from Animaker's library of sounds or upload your own tunes.
If you want to pay for the pro version, yous can as well go advanced features: in-app camera, multimove, curves, transition furnishings, and enter/exit effects. It'south like all those PowerPoint animations except cool and not then cheesy.
Blender
Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux
Utilize Blender if you're looking for the all-time video animation software for pro editors and creators. The free open-source 3D animation tool supports the "modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, video editing, and 2D blitheness pipeline." The platform is a public project, and creatives from all over the world contribute to its ongoing maintenance.
Let'southward talk features.
Rendering: Cycles is Blender'south ray-trace based production render engine, FreeStyle is an edge- and line-based non-photorealistic (NPR) rendering engine, and real-time feedback speeds up the editing procedure.
Modeling: Blender's modeling tools include sculpting, retopology, modeling, curves, and more than to assist with editing models.
Sculpting: Digital sculpting tools flexible for each phase of the digital production pipeline.
Animation and rigging: These tools include a character animation pose editor, Non Linear Animation (NLA) for independent movements, IK frontward/inverse kinematics for fast poses, and audio synchronization.
Grease pencil: Draw directly in 3D and combine 2D/3D art.
VFX: From camera and object motion tracking to masking and compositing, there are lots of fixes you can make in post-prod.
Simulation: Create simulations for fog, fume, rain, fire, liquid, and more than.
Pipeline:Choose from a long listing of import/consign options.
Video editing: A built-in video editor allows for basic actions like video cuts and splicing and more complex tasks like video masking or color grading.
Yeah, that's a lot. Blender is a comprehensive tool. And it's all free.
Editor'due south note:We also review Blender, along with 21 other video-editing tools, in this review.
K-3D
Platforms: Windows, Linux
K-3D is a free 3D animation software specializing in polygonal modeling, an approach to digital graphics that represents and approximates object surfaces using polygons. Designed for artists, the software combines plugins with a visualization pipeline architecture — information technology adapts to the look and experience of the tools you lot integrate it with.
Get started with their Wiki tutorials, showing yous how to master features like texturing, shadows, and symmetric modeling.
One of its best features? Easy disengage/redo functionality, so yous can quickly set up a error. Nigh programs only offer the selection to undo an activeness.
With both procedural and parametric workflows, y'all tin can make adjustments and come across the change immediately. A node-based visualization pipeline means editors can create connections and combinations for different elements within the video. Yous tin can work on ane side of a model and mirror the other side to meet what it looks like welded together.
K-3D is an avant-garde tool for true creatives.
OpenToonz
Platforms: Windows, Mac, and Linux
OpenToonz is one of the top free blitheness software for 2D videos. The open up-source software is free for both commercial and non-commercial apply, so you can use it to create marketing videos for your make.
It's too packed with features, such every bit:
Digital drawing tools: vector and bitmap drawing tools
Indexed color palettes: quick paint and color irresolute
Furnishings and compositing: animated special effects and composite scenes — cull from blurs, lighting, keys, masks, warps, and more than 100 other effects
Scripting: automations via ECMA-uniform scripting engine
Motion tracking: combine your blitheness with video footage
Scan and cleanup: create vectors from paper drawings
Frame-by-frame animation: with configurable onionskin
Motion tweening: link objects or use movement paths to execute circuitous movements
Basic character animation: with IK back up and mesh deformations
Particle systems: for pelting, dust, and like effects
You tin brand some pretty avant-garde animations with this tool.
COULD MAYBE EMBED AN Example Hither https://twitter.com/hashtag/opentoonz some ideas:
If yous run into issues using the gratuitous animation software, you can always turn to the user community or developer forum.
Pencil2D Animation
Platforms: Windows, Mac, and Linux
Pencil2D is a unproblematic animation software you can use to create hand-drawn 2D videos. The open-source software is free for both personal and commercial utilize, so you lot tin apply it only for fun or to create videos to promote your products.
The interface is simple and like shooting fish in a barrel to apply. That, along with tons of tutorials on the website and forums you lot can join, makes it a not bad selection to outset with.
Other features:
Image and audio import
Switch between raster and vector workflows so yous can sketch, ink, and pigment
Adjust frame rate
Add distortion and lighting furnishings
Onion skinning
Toolbar customizations
Force per unit area sensitivity
Multiple consign formats
Plastic Animation Paper
Platforms: Windows, Mac, and Linux
Plastic Animation Paper (PAP) is a gratuitous blitheness software for PC, Mac, and Linux. Though its interface is outdated, the software is completely gratuitous to download and employ. Beggars can't be choosers, right?
With PAP, you can create hand-fatigued 2D animations, while seeing your edits in existent time. The editing experience itself tin can be clunky, merely it's easy for beginners to learn and go familiar with. It'southward a sufficient tool for basic animated videos.
Feature highlights include bones drawing tools, zoom, rotation, cutouts, layers, and more.
Before long, PAP's creator will release a new, more advanced plan for $79, Animation Newspaper.
Best suited for skilled animators, Animation Paper will help animators create 2D graphics from hand-fatigued illustrations, along with a long list of features:
Minor and large format frames
Real-time, shine rotation and zoom, along with multiple options for flipping
Advanced and customizable onion skinning
Layers and lasso
Loftier-quality lines and stabilization
Coloring and pigment
Real-fourth dimension full frame reference on a second monitor for quick editing
When y'all're done creating your blithe video, export options include .mp4, .mov, and .png or .svg frame stacks.
Powtoon
Platforms: web browser-based
The side by side video animation software that'south free is Powtoon, meant for dynamic video presentations. While there are paid options with advanced features, Powtoon also has a stripped-down free tool for videos up to three minutes long.
In improver to what's listed to a higher place, Powtoon's free software also has:
Custom styles
Change aspect ratios and sizes
YouTube, Facebook, Wistia, Vimeo, PowerPoint, and PDF consign
Full video, animation, GIF, and image file implementation
Information technology'south a great tool for beginners, with several professional-looking templates to choose from, including animated explainer and infographic-way videos, equally well as templates built specifically for product promotion. You can also outset from scratch or import a theme from PowerPoint.
Stykz
Platforms: Windows, Mac, and Linux
Stykz is one of the easiest animation software to use. With it, you can brand bones 2D stick figure animated videos, like this i:
And this 1:
Pretty basic, but totally free.
Stykz is frame-based, meaning y'all work on ane private frame at a fourth dimension. It uses onionskins then yous can come across the previous frame and how to two flow together.
All edits are done inside the "Phase" — in other words, you make your edits and view your changes within the same window. No toggling between views needed.
Edit ane or multiple stick objects, fill shapes, and import your ain stick figures. Everything will auto-save equally yous go, then you don't need to worry near losing all your hard work.
Synfig Studio
Platforms: Windows, Mac, and Linux
The next free video animation online is Synfig Studio, an open up-source platform for creating second blithe videos. With it, you use vector graphics to create timeline-based animations.
Like OpenToonz, information technology offers a os system for animation controls so you lot tin can create natural movements. Create cutout animation using bitmap images or control your vector artwork, and use the additional Skeleton Baloney layer for complex deformations to bitmap artwork.
Advanced features include linking parameters for layers, assuasive yous to build character puppets and other advanced dynamic structures. It'south certainly not fabricated for beginners, so plough to an easier choice to get started earlier upgrading to Synfig's advanced feature set. In that location are plenty of video tutorials to help you get used to the program.
Hither's an example of a fun animated short created with Synfig Studio:
Toontastic 3D
Platforms: Android, iOS
Google's own gratis blitheness software for Android, Toontastic 3D is meant for kids, just brands tin besides apply it to make blithe 3D videos. Ideal for storytelling, you get started with Toontastic by creating your ain characters, either from scratch or based off an uploaded photograph. And so it's time to insert your characters into a story.
Toontastic is meant to encourage budding storytellers to go create with their narratives, and brands can do the aforementioned. Plan your storyline, animate, add together narration and music, and and then export it to share information technology with the world.
Your storyline is based on Toontastic templates, each with a unlike number of scenes. Toontastic likewise has premade scenes to cull from, so the but "drawing" you need to do is when it comes to the characters.
If it sounds similar a lot of steps, Google says you can create a one-minute video with up to vi scenes in but a minute — though that doesn't include the time it takes to create your characters upfront. It also works offline and so you can create videos on your daily commute or when the WiFi's out.
If you lot're looking for more control and creative flexibility, Toontastic isn't the best option. It'due south best-suited for those who are very new to the world of animated videos. Before long y'all'll graduate to i of the others on this list!
Honorable Mentions
Aurora 3D Animation Maker
Bryce 3D
Clara.io
DAZ 3D
DigiCel FlipBook (note that the gratis version includes watermark)
Moovly
Toon Boom Animate Pro 3
Summary
The best free animation software actually depends on your skill level, your hardware, and the types of videos you lot want to brand. In sum:
Animaker: unproblematic, browser-based animation software for beginners, with paid upgrades available
Blender: advanced open-source 3D animation software for people with video experience
K-3D: 3D animation software with polygonal modeling
OpenToonz: 2nd animation software with a long list of features for proficient or expert video folks
Pencil2D: hand-drawn, 2D animated videos with a uncomplicated interface that's beginner-friendly but loaded with features
Plastic Animation Paper: helpful for incorporating hand-drawn characters into 2d animated videos
Powtoon: bang-up for creating elementary, three-minute explainer or infographic videos in presentation-style format
Stykz: beginner-friendly, stick-figured based second animation software
Synfig Studio: robust software for creating vector-based blithe videos with advanced grapheme control
Toontastic 3D: for people who are very new to creating blithe videos; meant for kids merely can create simple, storytelling- and character-based videos for brands as well
0 Comments