As you'll know if you follow me, I'm a massive Flash animation enthusiast despite never having used the software in my life. I just love the style of Flash and what it's given to the internet. Sadly, it seems to have chosen the exact point I decided to make animations of my own to no longer exist.

Adobe has an alternative in their Creative Cloud package, but it costs something like £100 a year and there's no way I can afford that even with the student discount (I don't have a job yet!). I've also heard of Synfig but don't know anyone who uses it: is it good?

Please only suggest legitimate software downloads as I can't be bothered to get rid of viruses right now and my parents disapprove of anything remotely illegal XD

also don't suggest Scratch! It's great and everything but not exactly built for full-length short films!

I heard that Tupi was a good one, though I am not experienced enough to make anything that good.

FinTrakerGamer wrote:

I heard that Tupi was a good one, though I am not experienced enough to make anything that good.

Looks interesting, I'm probably going to get Synfig but will get Tupi if it turns out to be too difficult to use (I'm a complete novice).

UPDATE: OK so Synfig has bugs and is not downloading. I really am in desperate need of a free 2D animation program with the levels of capability of Synfig (Tupi seems to not exist any more and also doesn't seem as powerful as Flash etc.). Just a hopeless would-be animator over here

I've done a little bit of research into free (especially FOSS) 2D animation myself, but I'm afraid there's not a whole lot of help I can give you…

Currently, I use Synfig for all of the 2D animation I do. It's honestly pretty …lacking, but combined with Inkscape, I've managed to at least create short
and simple one-off animations.

I've also tried using vpaint, which has some pretty cool stuff in it, but is really just experimental and so isn't a good tool for actual animation.

You could look into using Blender, which is a 3D art software, but is rapidly becoming the best FOSS 2D animation software as well–there are also some really cool things that can be done because it supports 3D art, such as painting 2D art onto a 3D surface and getting automatic camera rotation that way.

The 2D art program Krita also supports mostly traditional 2D animation, so if you would be willing to learn that, you could look into it.

Finally, I am working on 2D animation software of my own simply because I am dissatisfied with the other options–but I'm afraid it's not actually remotely usable yet, and it's also entirely based on the Blender control scheme, so it probably wouldn't be a huge help to you anyways.

I would honestly suggest that your best option is probably to start off by learning 3D animation using Blender, because Blender is incredibly powerful software, and quite a few of the techniques from 3D animation would carry over into Flash-like 2D animation (although not really into traditional 2D animation).

TheMonsterOfTheDeep wrote:

I've done a little bit of research into free (especially FOSS) 2D animation myself, but I'm afraid there's not a whole lot of help I can give you…

Currently, I use Synfig for all of the 2D animation I do. It's honestly pretty …lacking, but combined with Inkscape, I've managed to at least create short
and simple one-off animations.

I've also tried using vpaint, which has some pretty cool stuff in it, but is really just experimental and so isn't a good tool for actual animation.

You could look into using Blender, which is a 3D art software, but is rapidly becoming the best FOSS 2D animation software as well–there are also some really cool things that can be done because it supports 3D art, such as painting 2D art onto a 3D surface and getting automatic camera rotation that way.

The 2D art program Krita also supports mostly traditional 2D animation, so if you would be willing to learn that, you could look into it.

Finally, I am working on 2D animation software of my own simply because I am dissatisfied with the other options–but I'm afraid it's not actually remotely usable yet, and it's also entirely based on the Blender control scheme, so it probably wouldn't be a huge help to you anyways.

I would honestly suggest that your best option is probably to start off by learning 3D animation using Blender, because Blender is incredibly powerful software, and quite a few of the techniques from 3D animation would carry over into Flash-like 2D animation (although not really into traditional 2D animation).

Thank you! I'm learning Blender at the moment so will look into the 2D features it has. Not very good at it so far but there's always room for improvement

I would suggest Blender, or if you want to, you should invest in Toon Boom. It's good, it's powerful, and it's got automatic lip-syncing.

SonicMasterSystem wrote:

I would suggest Blender, or if you want to, you should invest in Toon Boom. It's good, it's powerful, and it's got automatic lip-syncing.

I'd prefer it to be free but if Toon Boom is worth it (and I've seen people make some pretty good stuff on there) there's always Christmas

Randomfox wrote:

SonicMasterSystem wrote:

I would suggest Blender, or if you want to, you should invest in Toon Boom. It's good, it's powerful, and it's got automatic lip-syncing.

I'd prefer it to be free but if Toon Boom is worth it (and I've seen people make some pretty good stuff on there) there's always Christmas

Rick and Morty is animated in Toon Boom.

Yeah it's worth the price. I have it.

SonicMasterSystem wrote:

Randomfox wrote:

SonicMasterSystem wrote:

I would suggest Blender, or if you want to, you should invest in Toon Boom. It's good, it's powerful, and it's got automatic lip-syncing.

I'd prefer it to be free but if Toon Boom is worth it (and I've seen people make some pretty good stuff on there) there's always Christmas

Rick and Morty is animated in Toon Boom.

Yeah it's worth the price. I have it.

Woah ok if something as big as Rick and Morty was made with Toon Boom it must be good. I’ll look into it.

I have heard of an online one called Wick editor. It is in beta and a little bit glitchy, although on the bright side its vector! Fire alpaca also has some basic animation but not really a flash alternative. I recommend watching Alan Becker's free flash alternatives video.


Hope you find one.

arthurfunfan wrote:

I have heard of an online one called Wick editor. It is in beta and a little bit glitchy, although on the bright side its vector! Fire alpaca also has some basic animation but not really a flash alternative. I recommend watching Alan Becker's free flash alternatives video.


Hope you find one.

Thanks! I'm vaguely familiar with Wick Editor and am currently messing around with it to see how it compares to Flash. Thinking I might just download Adobe CC eventually but I'm going to do the free trial first.

Randomfox wrote:

arthurfunfan wrote:

I have heard of an online one called Wick editor. It is in beta and a little bit glitchy, although on the bright side its vector! Fire alpaca also has some basic animation but not really a flash alternative. I recommend watching Alan Becker's free flash alternatives video.


Hope you find one.

Thanks! I'm vaguely familiar with Wick Editor and am currently messing around with it to see how it compares to Flash. Thinking I might just download Adobe CC eventually but I'm going to do the free trial first.

I dont have a drawing tablet so do you know if it has built in pressure sensitivity?

How about FireAlpaca? It's free and secure, and it has an animation feature.

arthurfunfan wrote:

Randomfox wrote:

arthurfunfan wrote:

I have heard of an online one called Wick editor. It is in beta and a little bit glitchy, although on the bright side its vector! Fire alpaca also has some basic animation but not really a flash alternative. I recommend watching Alan Becker's free flash alternatives video.


Hope you find one.

Thanks! I'm vaguely familiar with Wick Editor and am currently messing around with it to see how it compares to Flash. Thinking I might just download Adobe CC eventually but I'm going to do the free trial first.

I dont have a drawing tablet so do you know if it has built in pressure sensitivity?

There doesn't seem to be much pressure sensitivity unfortunately

girlsruless wrote:

How about FireAlpaca? It's free and secure, and it has an animation feature.

FireAlpaca seems good, but the only problem is I'm not sure it's designed for Flash-style vector animation. I might use it for some bitmap projects though

Pencil2D

CrocodileCroco wrote:

Pencil2D

Yep, I have it installed but it’s not compatible with my tablet

I often use the SVE for animations.

Oh, I previously forgot to mention OpenToonz - I have no real idea how to use it, but it looks like it might be pretty capable.