Cheap or free animation software for an animation-curious 11 year old?

July 4, 2024 1:15 PM

Can you recommend a free or at least very cheap animation software for my 11-year-old daugther to try out on her Android tablet?

My eldest has recently expressed some interest in animation and I, a person who has never done any animation before, turn to you, my fellow nerds, to tell me how I can help facilitate this. Because we have no idea if this is a passing fancy or a nascent passion I'd prefer not to drop hundreds of dollars on an Adobe product or something (and would such a thing even be ideal given that she'd be doing 99% of this on her cheap Samsung tablet?).

Any advice y'all can provide would be hugely appreciated. Thanks!

posted by saladin to Technology (7 answers total)

There are a few different kinds of animation, e.g. stop motion; frame-by-frame (where you draw each frame individually, old style); keyframe (where you draw key frames like the beginning or end of some movement and the software generates the boring intermediate frames for you); animation with skeletons/bones/rigging, where you can draw a figure, pick some points on the drawing, and move them around to have the rest of the drawing move with the points, kind of like moving a puppet by pulling on its strings; 2D vs 3D; etc.

All of which is to say there are different apps for different types.

For stop motion, Stop Motion Studio was nice last time I used it. For frame-by-frame I kind of like RoughAnimator, although "rough" is right (it's one animator's personal project) and she might not find it that user-friendly.
posted by trig at 1:31 PM on July 4

Pixelorama is geared toward pixel art but I think that makes it easier to get started with. I normally run it on my desktop but people say it works fine to run it via the browser on an android tablet.
posted by SaltySalticid at 1:42 PM on July 4

also, for those small videos people film for fun, (just a camera and edit on clip champ), to make a fun at home video, what are the best AI programs to run it through, that would give a fun at home made film, studio looking effects, or 3d animation of different styles?
(something like this) or other similar AI converters of different art styles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gaFl7aFrUM
posted by AODY at 6:45 PM on July 4

Flipaclip is what a friend’s artistic kid used to explore animation before she decided watercolor painting was where it’s at.
posted by brook horse at 6:46 PM on July 4

Flipaclip is what my daughter uses. She says it seems to be the most popular free app for frame-by-frame animation.
posted by Redstart at 7:53 PM on July 4

If she has access to an iPad, Procreate Dreams is twenty bucks, no subscription.
posted by Eikonaut at 10:11 AM on July 5

sort of related: https://pikimov.com/
posted by mecran01 at 9:03 PM on July 5