Moho Forum

So, let's discuss the best traditional 2D animation programs to make an animation quickly and easily. These programs can be used on Windows OS and MAC to create animations for personal and professional uses.

Top 10 Best 2D Animation Software

Not to be taken very seriously. Doesn't even mention TVPaint.

slowtiger wrote: ↑Sun Jul 21, 2019 10:09 am Not to be taken very seriously. Doesn't even mention TVPaint.

It didn't make the "10 Best List."

Latest version from Reallusion, taking over from Crazytalk Animator 3 is Cartoon Animator 4.

InfoCentral wrote: ↑Sun Jul 21, 2019 6:35 pm It didn't make the "10 Best List."

This is kinda funny considering many professional studios have used TVPaint in animation production, including where I work. Also, when I think about my 12-year old daughter using TVPaint to create animated shorts that won school district awards, I'd say TVPaint definitely qualifies as a 'Best 2D Animation Software for Beginners and Professionals'.

(Plus, it works great with Moho too.)

I just can't take any list seriously which includes TVP as well as Crazytalk Animator. Two lists, one for beginners, would be a better (and more convincing) way.

The list doesn't open(( but I use either Clip Studio Paint (for high-res art) or Pyxel Edit (for 2d pixel art). Clip Studio Paint can be budget depending on what you get and if it's on sale too. Pyxel Edit of (if I'm correct) around 10$ so it's nothing to get.

I think nowadays Blender Grease Pencil is a true force to be reckoned with. Yes, the UI is convoluted and the fact that Blender is software for 3D modeling, sculpting, animating, vfx, video editing, aaaand 2D animation doesn't make it easier to use either, but the stuff you can do with it is insanely impressive.

Did I mention it's free and open source?

Another click bait list. Please

D.K

Considering that the field of activity related to the creation of animated videos has been actively developing recently, there are more and more various software related to their development on the Internet. But for me personally, the most convenient and adaptive application is Vyond. Recently I found a service on the Internet https://bestcoupon.store/coupons/vyond-coupon-code /, which helps to save money on the purchase of a full package of services of this application. Maybe it will be useful to someone.

Regardless of the list's intent, this is an interesting topic.

For beginners, I can look at what my child Sienna has used, beginning from the time they started animating.

1. Pencil and paper. When Sienna was around five years old, I was amazed that they would draw multiple images on a page of animals moving in sequence, like a bird in flight for example. I don't think Sienna realized this at the time but they were creating animations. Later, when they discovered the flip book, they tried to create an epic short film with it.

After a few hours, this ambitious project ended in tears.

2. When Sienna was 6 years old, we took a long road trip. To keep them occupied for the long drive, I showed Sienna an animation app on my iPad called Animation Desk. Animation Desk is pretty basic but it's easy to use and fun to play with. I expected to see the usual bouncing ball and the like but by the time we arrived at our destination, Sienna had created multiple of cartoons with original characters. (I mostly remember the Dum Dog and Crazy Cat cartoons. I'll have to post these on our website some day...they were pretty funny.)

By this age, Sienna already had more patience so no tears this time. In fact, my wife and I created an animation monster: Sienna has been quite absorbed with creating FBF animation ever since and continues to be very prolific.

3. Sienna is now 15 years old, and Flip-a-Clip seems to be their iPad animation app of choice. Flip-A-Clip is more advanced than Animation Desk, but it's still relatively easy to learn and use. Here are some recent examples of what Sienna creates with this app:



4. Callipeg is another FBF app for the iPad. Sienna doesn't use it but I like it a lot. One big advantage Callipeg has over Flip-a-clip is the ability to keyframe layer transforms. After showing this to Sienna, they got more interested in it, but I haven't seen them create anything with Callipeg yet.

5. On the PC side, Sienna used Fire Alpaca for the longest time (from 7-12 years old), and later switched to Krita. Both of these are free and capable programs, so good for beginners.

When Sienna wanted to create a longer format animation, I let them use my copy of TV Paint. When I saw how serious Sienna was about this, I decided to get them their own license of TV Paint. At the time, TV Paint did not offer educational discounts to minors (Sienna was 10 years old,) but after I showed them Sienna's work with Animation Desk and Flip-a-clip, they made an exception, making Sienna the youngest licensed TVP user.

While I don't consider TV Paint a beginner program at all, it's something beginner animators can look towards if they decide to get more serious about FBF animation after using one of the other programs I described so far. Sienna has used TV Paint in several short films and personal projects, and sill uses it for bigger projects.

6. And of course there's Moho. I tried to teach Sienna how to use Moho when they were very young (9 - 10 years) but they had trouble grasping the concept of keyframing bones. Plus, at that age they felt drawing animations frame by frame was more gratifying.

Lately, however, Sienna has been looking for quicker and more efficient ways to create certain types of animation and wanted to give Moho another try. I think they've finally warmed up to the idea that not all animations need to be drawn frame by frame to be satisfying. You can see some of Sienna's Moho work here...



The 'Moho' parts are the '3D' space capsule (0:02) and the winged characters (0:13). I confess I helped Sienna set up the rigs but Sienna did the animations.

BTW, we used the new Quad Warp in 13.5.2 to animate the space capsule and it worked out great! Sienna was so pleased with how that worked out, they asked for their own Moho license.

I think Moho can be a good program for beginners who have some experience with other types of animation programs--like FBF, 3D, and/or maybe compositing, since Moho combines concepts from all of these programs (drawing, modeling, rigging and animating with bones, and working in layers.) Moho Debut is fine for beginners on a budget but they should also have a good paint program to go with it...I think beginners will find it more immediately gratifying to work with bitmap images; creating and animating with vector art can always come later. Krita, iMO, works well with Moho Debit or Pro.

Moho can also be good for the beginner that has an interest in and some limited experience with stop-motion, since a lot of the same concepts will carry over.

I won't go into as much detail listing what Pro animators use, since the Pros here are already using what works best for them. In my personal opinion, the top contenders are (in no particular order)...

Moho Pro
Toon Boom Harmony
TV Paint
Adobe Animate
Adobe After Effects (with DuIK)

These are all 2D animation programs I use at my workplace and/or in my personal projects. The reason I use multiple programs is because no one program does everything I need, and I need to be very flexible to meet the demands of studio production and schedules.

Most of the time, my 2D animation is created by switching between Moho Pro and After Effects. For me, Moho Pro is just hands-down the best puppet animation program available, but After Effects is better for camera animation, lighting and effects work, so I use Moho Exporter to save our passes from Moho for compositing in AE. Also, while not technically an 'animation' program, I use Photoshop a lot to create elements for Moho and Ae. Photoshop does have built-in basic FBF tools which I've used on occasion to create FBF elements for Moho.

I hope my list is helpful or at least interesting.

So, what are your favorites?

(Hmm...this actually turned into a nice 'article'. Will have to republish this post on my sadly neglected website.)

Wow, big fan of Sienna. Incredibly talented!
Now I want to have a daugther. Or an animator father. I'm not sure.

Daxel wrote: ↑Tue Mar 08, 2022 12:46 am Wow, big fan of Sienna. Incredibly talented!

I'll let Sienna know!

Now I want to have a daugther. Or an animator father. I'm not sure.

Be careful what you wish for. Kids will drive you NUTS! (Or in my case, more nuts.)