Pixel Joint Forum: Animation software

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I'm testing various free painting programs, and I'm surprised that I can find so few ones with advanced animation features.
I'm looking specifically for programs which let you define an image that appears at several "steps" of an animation. (and if you modify it at T=1, the change is also visible at T=2 etc.)
I'm looking specifically for free programs, for training/learning. 
So far I can see only 3, if anybody knows an other...

Pencil
 planner : The best ergonomics I've ever seen for a timeline, 
unfortunately the program is not for pixelling, rather sketching (traditional cartoon).

ASEPrite : Limited to frames that stay the same for the entire anim duration (flag as "background"). Hopefully the author will expand the system, because the anim editor view seems ready for it.

Gimp (?) : I'm not 100% sure, but there seems to be the same behavior as Photoshop : For each animation frame (time step), you flag which layers are visible. I feel it's awkward to set for simple animations, but the result is powerful because you can make frames re-appear later : for example an anim can show in the sequence the frames 1, 2, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 2, 1, 4, 4

Edited by yrizoud - 04 November 2013 at 3:18am

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yrizoud Commander Joined: 03 May 2021 Location: France Online Status: Offline Posts: 343	Topic: Animation software Posted: 04 November 2013 at 3:16am
	I'm testing various free painting programs, and I'm surprised that I can find so few ones with advanced animation features. I'm looking specifically for programs which let you define an image that appears at several "steps" of an animation. (and if you modify it at T=1, the change is also visible at T=2 etc.) I'm looking specifically for free programs, for training/learning. So far I can see only 3, if anybody knows an other... Pencil planner : The best ergonomics I've ever seen for a timeline, unfortunately the program is not for pixelling, rather sketching (traditional cartoon). ASEPrite : Limited to frames that stay the same for the entire anim duration (flag as "background"). Hopefully the author will expand the system, because the anim editor view seems ready for it. Gimp (?) : I'm not 100% sure, but there seems to be the same behavior as Photoshop : For each animation frame (time step), you flag which layers are visible. I feel it's awkward to set for simple animations, but the result is powerful because you can make frames re-appear later : for example an anim can show in the sequence the frames 1, 2, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 2, 1, 4, 4 Edited by yrizoud - 04 November 2013 at 3:18am
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surt Commander Joined: 30 December 2015 Online Status: Offline Posts: 413	Posted: 04 November 2013 at 3:49am
	Pixeditor is for pixelling, it's early in development but has a proper timeline: https://github.com/pops/pixeditor

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yrizoud Commander Joined: 03 May 2021 Location: France Online Status: Offline Posts: 343	Posted: 04 November 2013 at 8:37am
	Awesome find, Surt ! After some lurking, it's by PJ user z-uo. The layer/frame management seems already complete and totally bug-free. For aspiring animators, this is going to be at the top of my "recommended" list.
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Kyata Seaman Joined: 12 December 2017 Online Status: Offline Posts: 7	Posted: 10 November 2013 at 6:10am
	I think Animaki is a very advanced free pixel animation software without download needed. Here is a demo And it keeps getting improved, so suggestions are always welcome. It's easy to set up the animation. Just start drawing and add frames. You can view other frames with onion skin (it has options to look backward, or forward, or both) and you can make frames reappear by just copying and paste the frames. You can also set up different speeds for every frame, which is of course very handy for games such as fighting games. Edited by Kyata - 10 November 2013 at 6:39am
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flux Seaman Joined: 09 November 2013 Online Status: Offline Posts: 5	Posted: 10 November 2013 at 9:53am
	Note sure if this is exactly what you're looking for, but you can define your own animations and show different frames multiple times. It was however aimed at sprite animation. http://www.pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=17471 Edited by flux - 10 November 2013 at 9:53am
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