Pencil2D
A small, approachable program for traditional hand-drawn 2D animation, mixing bitmap and vector layers.
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About Pencil2D
Pencil2D is frame-by-frame animation in the classic sense: you draw on a timeline, onion skinning shows you the frames either side, and you build motion by drawing it rather than by keyframing parameters. Bitmap and vector layers can sit in the same project.
It is deliberately minimal, which makes it a reasonable first animation program and a poor choice for a complicated production. A built-in Quick Reference covers the tools, and the project is volunteer-driven with builds for Windows, macOS, Linux and FreeBSD.
Strengths
- Frame-by-frame drawing with onion skinning, which is what hand-drawn animation needs
- Bitmap and vector layers in one project
- Small and quick to learn compared with full animation suites
- Builds for Windows, macOS, Linux and FreeBSD
Limitations
- Minimal by design; complex productions outgrow it quickly
- No rigging, tweening or particle systems
- Development pace is slow and volunteer-driven
- Export options are basic
Details
- Pricing
- FreeFree and open source under the GPL, developed entirely by volunteers.
- License
- GPL-2.0
- Developer
- Pencil2D
- Platforms
- Windows, macOS, Linux
- How it runs
- Downloadable app
- Account
- Not required
- Works offline
- Yes
- Best suited for
- Learning and making short hand-drawn 2D animations
- Categories
- Image editors
- Last verified
- Added
- Provenance
- Selected from the TechWalrus downloads catalog (Graphics); facts checked against the developer's own pages, 2 sources on file.
Alternatives to Pencil2D
Compare allSoftware that can replace Pencil2D for an important use case, and what changes if you switch.
OpenToonz
Professional 2D animation software, based on the Toonz version used by Studio Ghibli.
OpenToonz adds production features like an exposure sheet, scan and cleanup tools and plugin effects under BSD-3-Clause, but it is hard to learn.
Synfig Studio
Vector 2D animation software that tweens between keyframes instead of making you draw every frame.
Synfig Studio adds keyframe tweening and bones for cutout animation, but has a steep learning curve and is not built mainly for frame-by-frame drawing.
Similar software
Related functionality, not necessarily a direct replacement.
Krita
A free digital painting program built for illustrators, with over a hundred brushes ready to use.
Drawpile
Draw and animate together on a shared canvas.
LibreSprite
A pixel art and sprite animation editor, forked from the last version of Aseprite that was still GPL.
Pixelorama
A pixel art editor for sprites, tiles and animation, built in Godot and running on desktop, Android and the web.
