Today, we'll be discussing the top 20 programs for creating animated cartoon characters. There are numerous free and paid programs available for animation creation, and our website strives to offer the best options, mostly at no cost or at a minimal expense, for the production of fairy tales and cartoons.
Note 1: The programs highlighted in this guide may be entirely or partially free, and this will be indicated as we present each program. We recommend reading the guide attentively to avoid missing any crucial information.
Note 2: As a special treat for our readers, we have included a valuable gift at the end of the list. The list is arranged in no particular order.
Since I don't want to drag out the introduction, let's dive straight into the list of the top 20 programs for creating animated cartoon characters.
The best 20 animation création software in 2023
Programs to create animation characters |
1- Program – Pencil2D
Pencil2D is a lightweight, yet incredibly powerful 2D program that offers an open source environment within a framework. It's a suitable option for beginners in the animation industry and one of the easiest programs to use. Pencil2D contains open source features and even extends to commercial use.
It supports both vectors and bitmap graphics and offers several useful features, including onion-skinning. This feature allows you to view previous frames of the animation while working on the next one, making the animation creation process smoother and more efficient.
Before getting started, we recommend reviewing the Pencil2D Tutorials page, as it provides a deep understanding of the program and its various features.
2- program - krita
Krita is a highly popular animation application that has caught the attention of animators worldwide. It is an excellent choice for animation enthusiasts, providing over 100 pre-loaded brushes within the application, each of which has a variety of effects and features to enhance the graphic creation process.
The program also includes a built-in brush setting feature that minimizes the effects of shaky hands, making it an ideal choice for using electronic boards such as tablets and iPads.
3- Program - Blender
The website offers a unique service which has been added to Blender, called Grease Pencil. This feature allows you to draw in a three-dimensional environment, making it an ideal program for creating high-quality animated cartoon characters, hand-drawn and animated graphics, and cut-out drawings.
However, in order to avoid any issues with Blender, it is recommended that you have prior experience with this application or with another program that works with 3D tools. This experience will enable you to start working directly in Blender without having to refer to the beginner's tutorial for Grease Pencil from Dedouze.
Advantages of the program include:
- Blender provides a comprehensive set of powerful design, rendering, modeling, and sculpting tools.
- The website offers advanced animation and rigging tools.
- You can draw and edit in 3D mode.
- Video and visual effects editing, including motion tracking, masking, and compositing, are supported.
- The program includes realistic and powerful utilities and simulations.
- An extensive Python-based API is available for scripting and customization.
- The user interface is customizable, allowing you to create graphics with your preferred layout, windows, and shortcuts.
- Price : Free.
Pros: Blender is a free animation software with advanced rendering tools that make it suitable for both beginners and experts. The software offers a range of features to create and display animations, making it a popular choice for animators, engineers, scientists, artists, and students.
Cons: The software has a steep learning curve due to the extensive features and tools that need to be learned to create professional animations. Beginners may require several hours of tutorials before creating animations with the desired level of professionalism.
Intended audience: Blender is used by a wide range of professionals, including animators, engineers, scientists, artists, and students.
4- Program - SketchBook
Autodesk created this program which is considered a digital sketchbook for drawing and writing. It turns your computer into an electronic drawing board, making drawing and handwriting on the computer easier and more precise. This program was previously paid, but now it is free, making it an excellent option for beginners with its simple and intuitive interface that requires minimal time to learn. The program provides natural-looking brushes when painting on the canvas.
SketchBook is also an excellent option for those interested in creating films and animations, and it offers several distinguishing features like onion-skinning. I have personally used it to prepare written texts and animation arrows. Additionally, SketchBook allows you to customize the work interface of the application to suit your specific requirements.
5- Program – OpenToonz
OpenToonz is a program developed by the Duango team that boasts a range of impressive features. While its interface may seem a bit daunting for beginners, with some prior experience in other applications, users can quickly learn how to navigate it. With just a half-hour video tutorial and another half hour to practice, users can become proficient in OpenToonz in just a couple of hours.
As a 2D animation program, OpenToonz is comparable to paid software like Adobe Animate, making it an excellent choice for those seeking a free alternative. Despite being a beginner-friendly program, OpenToonz offers a suite of professional features such as onion-skinning and bitmap support.
6- Program - Synfig Studio
Synfig Studio is an open-source 2D animation tool that boasts a wide array of features and capabilities. While the software's interface looks impressive, it can be challenging for beginners to navigate. Nonetheless, Synfig Studio is constantly being updated to enhance tool performance, with deb, rpm, and tar packages being among the many packages available.
One of Synfig Studio's most notable features is vector tweening, which automates the process of transforming interface layers. The application also includes layers and filters, supports both bitmap and vector images, and features numerous tutorials online to help users navigate the software's many tools and features.
7- CrazyTalk Animator
CrazyTalk Animator is a 2D animation application that is highly regarded for its professional capabilities and widespread popularity. This is due in large part to the numerous templates it offers, as well as its ability to add voiceovers and alter character styles with ease. Put simply, CrazyTalk Animator allows users to easily transform images into cartoon characters, and then manipulate them from a variety of different angles to create high-quality, professional-grade animations.
Overall, the program's benefits outweigh its drawbacks. For example, CrazyTalk Animator provides the ability to record audio directly from a microphone or via text-to-speech technology, while also offering a range of professional-grade tools for creating animated films. Additionally, the program boasts a 3D camera feature, further adding to its appeal for professional animators.
8- Toon Boom Harmony program
Toon Boom Harmony is a highly advanced software application that caters to professional users. Due to its complex features, beginners are encouraged to watch educational videos to avoid any errors while using the program. It is a paid software that is renowned for its exceptional digital drawing capabilities, and is widely used for producing two-dimensional puppet animation films. Toon Boom Harmony is a preferred choice for graphic designers and cartoonists alike. Its features allow users to select a transparent background for animations and customize the colors according to their preferences.
9- Program - Visme
Visme is an advanced design tool that specializes in high-quality video animation and animated graphics, available on the cloud, making it accessible for anyone to create engaging visuals such as animations, social media videos, advanced infographics, professional presentations, ads, banners, and more.
With animation and interactivity features, Visme allows users to design eye-catching visuals that go beyond static images. Visme Animator offers access to thousands of pre-made templates, a library of free photos and videos, customizable pre-animated characters, illustrations, gestures, and more.
The program offers several advantages including:
- A drag and drop feature to design elements and graphics.
- A vast collection of graphics and animation templates to produce animations.
- Customizable pre-made animation templates, including characters and illustrations.
- An animation timeline feature enabling users to customize scenes and synchronize sound with the image.
- Over 14 types of interactive charts and maps.
- Various forms of animation developed within the program.
- Interactive links, call-to-action buttons, and hover effects.
- Searchable libraries containing free images, videos, icons, and graphic shapes.
- Support for importing images, videos, fonts, and formats from your device.
- The software allows you to embed videos and other online content into your creative project, adding to the overall interactivity and engagement of your design.
- The "team collaboration" feature on Visme allows you to share your projects with others, enabling team members to work together seamlessly and effectively.
- With the Trade Marks & Graphics Collection, you can save your brand colors, fonts, logos, and formats for future use in your projects, ensuring consistency and coherence in your designs.
- Visme offers advanced analytics that allow you to access graphs and statistics for project views. This feature is particularly useful for students, researchers, and others who need to coordinate and display statistics in an organized and easy-to-understand manner.
- The program supports downloading formats and animations for offline use in various formats, including GIF, MP4, and HTML5, giving you greater flexibility and control over your design.
- Visme enables you to publish and share your content online easily and efficiently, either by using a hyperlink or generating an embed code. This feature makes it simple to share your work with a wider audience, whether for personal or professional use.
Price: The software offers a complimentary plan with limited features, whereas the premium plans commence at $15 per user per month and are charged annually.
Benefits: This all-in-one software is loaded with features, animations, and interactivity, making it suitable for both designers and non-designers. One of the key advantages of this software is its collection of numerous free graphics that can be utilized.
Drawbacks: While the software offers many benefits, it has a few downsides such as the limited features available in the complimentary plan and the difficulty of the user guide.
Ideal for: This software is perfect for marketers, corporate teams, educators, coaches, and personal use.
10 - Program - Adobe Animate
Adobe Animate is an enhanced version of Adobe Flash Professional, a software used for creating 2D animations and interactive graphics for videos, games, TV, and more. This program offers a variety of tools for creating interactive animations that can be used in games, TV shows, and websites. Additionally, it allows users to create animated graphics and avatars, and can also add animation to educational content for a more engaging learning experience.
Advantages of the program include:
- It provides users with a comprehensive set of tools for creating animations.
- Vector designs can be created with customizable settings for size, smoothness, compression, and speed.
- The timeline can be easily controlled with advanced animation settings, giving users complete freedom.
- The Virtual Camera feature enables users to add pan, zoom, and other effects to animations.
- Adobe Animate is considered the best animation software due to its ability to easily synchronize audio with animations and create audio loops.
- Typekit integration provides access to web-based fonts.
- Export options include Flash, HTML5 Canvas, WebGL, SVG, and more.
Price: Prices for Animate start at $20.99 per month.
Benefits: Animate is animation software that provides numerous export and sharing options, allowing users to publish their animations in almost any format and for any operating system.
Drawbacks: Like other Adobe programs, Animate can be challenging to learn, particularly for individuals new to graphic design elements.
Ideal for: Animate is ideal for game designers, YouTubers, content creators, and animators.
11 - Program - Adobe Character Animator
Adobe Character Animator is a suite of animation software offered by Adobe that enables users to create 2D animations of their characters using motion capture. Unlike Adobe Animate, Character Animator allows for facial movement tracking, meaning users can animate their characters using their own facial expressions captured via their webcam. This animation software is a great tool for the animation industry, with many features that make the animation creation process more accessible.
Advantages of the program include:
- Real-time motion capture and automatic facial movement tracking.
- Access to characters from the Creative Cloud Market.
- Character Animator is integrated with other Adobe programs such as Photoshop and Illustrator.
- Limbs on characters can be moved using mouse movement.
- Timeline panel to record and edit scenes added to the animation.
Adobe Character Animator is included in the Creative Cloud All-Apps plan, which costs $52.99 per month. The program offers several advantages, such as the ability to track facial movement for realistic movements and expressions. It also provides a range of import and export options.
However, one disadvantage of Adobe Character Animator is that it is only available as part of the Creative Cloud package, which may be expensive for beginners who only need this program. Additionally, users must have a webcam and microphone to take advantage of the motion capture feature during facial movement.
This animation software is suitable for a variety of users, including bloggers, marketers, artists, and educators.
12 - Program - VistaCreate
VistaCreate is more than just a basic animation software - it boasts an extensive library of animated templates and thousands of pre-animated objects and characters that allow you to easily create animated ads, square videos, and even Facebook covers without the need for design skills.
Additionally, you can combine videos and animated GIFs with your images, including animated backgrounds, to create short, visually captivating video posts for your social media platforms.
Some of the advantages of using VistaCreate include access to thousands of customizable animated templates, a vast database of over 50 million images, and a large library of videos and animations that you can incorporate into your designs. You can also download fonts and graphics, download videos in MP4 format, and directly share your animated videos to social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
The program is available for free, although with limited features, while the Professional plan is priced at $10 per month and billed annually. With VistaCreate, you can create video artwork and animations in various formats and high-quality stories and presentations for functional use or social media. Its mobile version also allows you to create creative designs on the go.
However, it is worth noting that the free version offers limited storage space and creative assets. VistaCreate is a perfect fit for marketers, small business owners, and freelancers looking to create captivating video artwork and animations in different formats.
13 - Program - Adobe Creative Cloud Express
Adobe Creative Cloud Express is a user-friendly animated character software that allows you to easily create video content for social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. The mobile version of the software, available on iOS, enables you to create short videos with animated text and visually appealing images, using a variety of existing templates and animation styles.
Learn about the main features of the program:
- The program offers a selection of customizable templates in various formats.
- You can easily sync your designs across multiple devices.
- With the iOS app, you can create animated posts on the go without the need for a desktop application.
- The software includes a vast library of free images and icons to use in your designs.
- You can download your work as an MP4 video file or share it online with ease.
Adobe Creative Cloud Express offers a free plan and paid plans starting at $9.99 per month. One of the advantages of this software is its convenience - users can create animated videos for social media using the iOS app on their mobile device, without the need for a computer or office equipment. The program has a user-friendly interface and allows users to log in with their Adobe account. However, the downside is the lack of advanced animation features compared to other software on this list, and the animations are only available in the iOS app, not the Android or web version. Overall, Adobe Creative Cloud Express is a great option for freelancers, marketers, and bloggers who need a quick and easy way to create animated social media posts.
14 - PosterMyWall program
PosterMyWall is a user-friendly animation program that specializes in creating stunning graphics. Unlike other programs, you can start editing and creating graphics without registering. It offers a wide range of customizable templates and videos for designing advertising or promotional posters and graphics. One of the key features of PosterMyWall is the ability to download your designs as high-quality videos, including 4K and Full HD, making it ideal for YouTube use. However, the print feature is only available in the United States. PosterMyWall also allows you to save your works in high-quality MP4 and GIF files and share them with a link or embed them online. In addition to collage printing, the program has thousands of ready-made videos for personal use, making it an ideal choice for designers of all skill levels.
- Price: The program offers a free plan with limited social media downloads, while paid plans start at $9.95 per month.
- Pros: This program stands out for its ability to create high-quality animated cartoon characters in 4K and Full HD. You can also easily edit templates in your browser without the need to log in.
- Cons: The free plan has limited download options, and the animation features are also limited.
- Ideal for: Both individuals and businesses can benefit from this program.
15 - Program - PixTeller
PixTeller is a versatile online photo editor and animation maker that is suitable for both personal and commercial use. It offers a wide range of features for creating stickers, logos, collages, quote pictures, banners, invitations, flyers, video thumbnails, and more. With PixTeller, you can easily create short animated videos by setting frame-by-frame animations and editing the attributes of each frame, such as colors, rotation, opacity, and more.
Some advantages of PixTeller include the hundreds of customizable pre-animated templates it offers, as well as the ability to customize frame by frame in the schedule timeline. Additionally, the program provides unique text effects to make your animations stand out and attractive, over 100,000 shapes to add to animation clips, and the option to share your video URL with your friends. You can also download your video in MP4 and GIF formats.
- Price-wise, PixTeller offers a basic plan that does not include animation capabilities, but their animation plan starts at $12 per month and is billed annually.
- One of the major advantages of PixTeller is its ability to create animated posts and banner ads by editing frame by frame in the timeline. However, a drawback is its limited advanced animation features. Additionally, downloading designs in MP4 or GIF format is only available on the paid plan.
- PixTeller is an ideal choice for marketers, freelancers, and bloggers looking to create engaging visual content for both personal and commercial use.
16 - Program - Animatron Studio
If you're a beginner looking for a comprehensive animation software, Animatron Studio is worth considering. It provides a vast collection of pre-animated elements and templates to help you create HTML5 explainer videos and banner ads. The program offers almost limitless customization options, allowing you to customize expressions, characters, and more. For those looking for a less powerful version, there is Animatron Lite.
Benefits of Animatron Studio:
- The program has a vast library of pre-made graphics, animated characters, and more.
- Extensive customization options are available.
- You can import, develop, and edit your projects.
- Animatron Studio includes built-in voiceover features to add narration, which is particularly useful for social media platforms, especially YouTube.
- The program allows for real-time collaboration and adding comments.
- Your work can be exported in HTML5, MP4, SVG, and GIF formats.
- You can share your work online using the link or embed code provided by the program.
Pricing: Animatron Studio offers a free "Simple Mode" with limited features, while paid plans start at $30 per month with annual billing.
Pros: Animatron Studio provides extensive customization options for characters and animations, and supports multiple download formats.
Cons: The program's interface can be a bit clunky, and there are no free video assets available within the software.
Ideal for: Animatron Studio is a great fit for marketers, corporate teams, educators, and freelancers looking for a feature-rich animation software.
17 - Program - Biteable
If you are looking to create short, impactful animated videos for purposes such as demonstrations, advertisements, or social media content, Biteable is an excellent option to consider. With Biteable, you have the ability to share and download your creations, as well as collaborate with your friends or editorial team.
Biteable boasts a vast collection of templates, allowing you to create professional-looking videos quickly and easily. You can also fully customize these templates to suit your individual needs. Additionally, Biteable provides access to a vast library of audio tracks, which you can use to enhance your videos, or you can upload your own audio.
Sharing your work with your team is easy with Biteable's collaboration features, and you can choose to post your video to the platform with privacy controls in place. You can also download your videos in Full HD MP4 format, and share your work directly on social media or via a project link or embed code. Overall, Biteable is a powerful tool for creating engaging and visually stunning animated videos.
Biteable offers a free plan with limited features, while paid plans start at $49 per month and require annual billing. One advantage of Biteable is that it allows you to create a variety of marketing videos, such as explainers and demos.
On the other hand, a drawback of Biteable is that the downloaded video is only available in MP4 format. Additionally, if you use the free plan, your project will have a watermark.
Biteable is an ideal tool for marketers, coaches, and educators who want to create professional-looking videos.
18 - Program - Animaker
Animaker is an excellent choice for companies and educators seeking to create interactive presentations and videos. This software comes equipped with a robust library of pre-made templates that you can utilize to create high-quality graphic videos, complete with illustrations, characters, and gestures.
There are many advantages to using Animaker. For instance, the program provides a wide range of templates and offers a variety of options for creating animated cartoon characters. Additionally, Animaker offers six unique video styles that you can edit to suit your needs. You can also take advantage of advanced animation features, such as Curve and Camera In and Out.
Animaker also comes with a large selection of music tracks and sound effects to enhance your graphic projects. The software includes enterprise and team management features, making it a great choice for businesses of any size. Once you've finished creating your video, you can upload it directly to YouTube and Facebook or share the URL. Animaker also allows you to download your video in MP4 and GIF formats.
Animaker offers a very limited free plan, while paid plans start at $10 per month and require annual payment.
One advantage of Animaker is that it allows you to create animated cartoon characters for business or personal use. Additionally, the program offers a variety of video styles, including different whiteboard video styles.
On the other hand, the free plan only allows for 5 watermarked downloads, and Animaker is primarily designed for video creation rather than GIF creation.
Animaker is an ideal tool for marketers, presenters, and freelancers who want to create professional-looking videos.
19 - Program - Canva
Canva is a popular web-based graphic design tool that recently added basic animation features to its platform. With Canva, you can easily create and download your designs as a GIF or video by selecting one of the six available animation styles.
Advantages:
- Canva provides access to thousands of editable templates across various categories.
- You can access millions of free and paid images, icons, and other assets to incorporate into your designs.
- Six different animation styles are available to choose from.
- Canva allows you to invite team members to collaborate on designs and share branding elements with them.
- You can organize your designs into folders within the program for better management.
- Canva offers the ability to download animated designs in both GIF and MP4 video formats.
Pricing: Canva's pricing starts at $12.99 per month or $119.99 per year.
Pros: Canva provides users with access to a wide range of assets, has a user-friendly interface, and supports the English language on the front end.
Cons: The animation features in Canva are limited to basic capabilities and do not include advanced animation options.
Perfect for: Canva is ideal for marketers, bloggers, and small business owners looking to create simple yet visually appealing designs with basic animation elements.
20 - Program - Easy
Easil is a versatile tool that enables users to create animated characters with ease. It employs simple graphics editing patterns and also allows for easy GIF downloads.
Easy |
Benefits of using Easil:
- Easil has a vast collection of customizable templates.
- Its brand toolkit feature saves your brand's colors, logos, and color schemes.
- It offers creative text effects, including shadows and more.
- Users can resize or print templates and designs to suit various social media platforms.
- Easil's color palette generator allows users to create custom color schemes.
- It has team sharing capabilities.
- Easil enables users to download animated GIF images.
Pricing for Easil starts at $7.50 per month.
Pros of Easil:
- Easil offers plenty of features that facilitate team collaboration and boost visual branding.
- Its user-friendly interface makes it easy for non-designers to create professional-looking designs.
Cons of Easil:
- Although Easil has numerous ready-made templates and other features, it still relies on the image replication feature to export GIFs, which may limit design creativity.
- The free plan does not include a GIF download option.
To summarize, in this guide, we have provided a list of the top 20 programs for creating animated cartoon characters in 2023. This list will be regularly updated to reflect new developments in the field of animation and graphics. If you know of any other programs that we should consider for inclusion in our next guide, please let us know. We are always eager to hear about new and innovative tools that can help users create amazing animations and graphics.
FAQs About Animation Software Programs
1- Which animation program is recommended as the best option?
For creating vector animations, Adobe Animate is a great choice. Adobe After Effects can be used to produce overlays, animations, and visual effects, and you can easily switch between it and other Adobe applications such as Photoshop and Illustrator. Whether you use Windows or macOS, you have access to the right drawing tools and animation software.
2- What are the steps involved in making an animated movie?
To make animations with Renderforest Animation Maker, start by selecting the perfect template from our wide range of options. Then, transform scenes to make them unique to your needs. Finally, publish and share your video with the world.
3- How can one create a cartoon character?
When drawing cartoon characters, it is advisable to begin by relying on geometric shapes (circles, ovals, squares, triangles, and cylindrical shapes) to form the body and face. Contrasting forms and sizes, and exaggeration between them, can be used to add a sense of humor. Simplified designs of people can be created without much difficulty.
4- What are the different types of animation?
There are several types of animation including Traditional Animation, Stop Motion Animation, Motion Graphics, 2D Animation, and 3D Animation.
5- What are some free animation software options available?
For those looking to create cartoons, videos, infographics, or 2D animations without much experience, there are several free animation software options to choose from, such as Adobe Animate (our top pick), Blender (open source software), Maya (for 3D applications), Toon Boom Storyboard Pro (complex tool), K-3D, Daz Studio, Animaker, and KeyShot.