In animation, tweening is a process through which characters are animated, frame by frame, which is later removed one by one as a character changes position.
Also known as inbetweening, tweening’s primary goal is to illustrate the motion impression changing from frame to structure.
As you embark on a journey to find the best tweening apps, it’s imperative to understand some profound terms in tweening. Keyframes appear at the start and end of a smooth change, while an animated character appears to move parts of its body.
The tweening process involves a lead animation artist who creates keyframes and in-between frames, assisted by the middle artists. With existing computer animation, the process takes much less time and work.
In this article, we will talk about some of the best tweening apps to create animated actions. I’m sure you’ll be in a better position at the end of this review to settle on an app that will meet your animation needs.
Let’s get straight to it.
Best Tweening Apps To Create Animated Actions
1. Adobe Animate
Adobe Animate is a computer animation program that can design vector graphics and online animation for rich web applications, television series, game development, commercials, and other interactive projects.
Adobe has powerful tools to help you code and design your project within the software. You can create more shapes using Adobe brushes or make your characters move using the easy frame-by-frame animation.
Adobe Animate allows you to create animations that can talk, blink, or walk, through simple frame-by-frame animation. You can also make interactive web banners that respond to user interactions such as moving, touching, or clicking the mouse.
The tool allows you to publish your work anywhere. You can reach your audience on mobile, desktop, or TV by exporting your work to various platforms, including WebGL, HTML5 Canvas, Flash/AdobeAIR, or customized platforms such as SVG.
The best part about this tool is that it’s constantly going through improvements, where new features are frequently being added. If you subscribe to Adobe Creative Cloud Membership, you’ll get access to new features as soon as they are released.
Adobe Animate has pricing plans that suit various animation needs. To get Animate as a single app you’ll pay $20.99 per month.
Adobe Animate may only be available in some countries and languages and can be subject to discontinuation or change without notice. The tool is only available for Windows and MacOS.
Find out more tools like Adobe Animate here.
2. Callipeg
Callipeg is one of the most intuitive and feature-packed apps that you can use to create good-looking animations on iPads. The app uses an Apple pencil to create these animations and is free to download and enjoy its seven-day trial.
The tool is ideal for anyone interested in learning animation and with a strong will to stick with the learning process. Its 2D drawing tools use industry-standard methods to give you a level of sophistication that not so long ago was hard to attain.
Callipeg has various brushes to help you achieve the art style you want. It also has layers to organize and facilitate your content, while its audio ensures you bring your creation out of silence.
Callipeg’s Apple pencil comes at an additional cost but is more cost-effective than a PC or Mac drawing tablet.
Callipeg was released on App Store at the beginning of 2020 after a successful Kickstarter campaign. The app was released in 148 countries and regions, and more and more animators use the app daily.
Currently, Callipeg supports English, French, Mandarin Chinese, and Japanese. The Callipeg team is constantly working on new features, so you can rest assured that soon you’ll be able to import image and video sequences.
Callipeg goes for $1.99 per month, $12.99 per year, and $54.99 for a lifetime.
3. Wick Editor
Another excellent tweening app for creating animated actions that couldn’t miss on my top list is Wick Editor. Wick Editor is a free, open-source app that you can use to create animations, games, and everything in between.
Wick Editor is one of the most accessible tools for creating multiple multimedia projects, and your creations can run on any device with a web browser. Wick Editor is inspired by tools such as Scratch and HyperCard, making it a hybrid between a coding environment and an animation tool.
The app was developed in 2016. Since then, the tool has undergone a series of improvements, thanks to the support and suggestions from its community of users.
Wick Editor’s outstanding features include support for layers that organize elements in a hierarchical order, which can be viewed or manipulated independently. The automated tweening feature ensures smooth transitions by automatically generating in-betweens from two frames.
With its keyframe animation tool, Wick Editor enables you to keyframe compositions and change parameters over time. The tool allows you to see through multiple frames simultaneously while ensuring that each frame lines up correctly.
Wick Editor has multiple instructional videos to help you navigate the platform. The tool allows you to save files in different formats. It is available on Chromebook, Android, Mac, iOS, PC, and iPad. Bottom-line, Wick Editor is an excellent tool for aspiring creators.
4. OpenToonz
If you are still deciding on the best tweening apps to create animated actions, I recommend you try out OpenToonz. As its name suggests, OpenToonz is an open-source animation production software suitable for personal and retail use.
OpenToonz is incredibly powerful, with outstanding 2D animation features including customizable templates and fonts. The app allows you to draw every layer of creation frame by frame.
While the tool is available on MacOS and Windows, it is advanced for beginners, thanks to its complex user interface.
OpenToonz allows you to change picture styles. It is also suitable for scanning in black and white and color with or without edge detection. The tool is available in English, Persian, and Spanish.
The tool has been used in the production of popular animation videos such as award-winning Japanese animation Spirited Away, Sponge Bob Square Pants, and Princess Mononoke.
Due to its complex interface, a steeper learning curve is required. However, if you put in extra effort to master this app by watching multiple tutorials and videos, you will have mastered one of the best 2D animation tools available.
OpenToonz is free to download and use.
5. Glaxnimate
Glaxnimate is an open-source web program and app suitable for tweening and graphic images. The app is simple yet fast vector graphics animation software with a custom-made user interface. You can switch between dark and light UI themes, icon themes, or dockable views.
As mentioned earlier, Glaxnimate works with vector graphics, where images are described with elements such as lines, points, and curves. This is different from other platforms that use raster graphics with a grid of pixels of different colors.
The best thing about vector graphics is that you can view images at any resolution without losing their quality. Glaxnimate supports multiple layers and layers nestled in other layers to give flexibility to your file structure.
Glaxnimate will enable you to create animations for the web, such as animated SVG, Lottie animations, animated GIFs, and WebP.
The platform has an extensive scripting interface where you can use python to create plugins and manipulate animations. You’ll also love its cross-platform support on Linux, Windows, and MacOS.
Glaxnimate is free.
6. Synfig Studio
Synfig Studio is a free, open-source 2D animation tool with the strength to handle film-quality animations. It is available on Windows, Linux, and MacOS, and the tool eliminates the need to create animations frame by frame.
Robert Quattlebaum created Synfig Studio with the assistance of Adrian Bentley. The tool began as a custom animation platform for Voria studios and was later released as open-source software in 2005.
Synfig Studio can automatically create in-betweens from two frames for smooth transitions. The tool provides over 50 layers to help you create animations and artwork of different complexities. The layers include gradients, geometric, filters, distortions, fractals, and transformations.
Another feature that will excite you with Synfig Studio is its full-featured bone system that allows you to create cut-out animations with bitmap images. With Synfig Studio, you can easily apply complex distortions to a bitmap creation using its additional skeleton distortion layers.
The platform’s advanced controls help you link various parameters through mathematical expressions or automatically. Advanced controls also enable you to create advanced character puppets, among other dynamic structures.
The app is not available on Android or iOS, but you can download it in two versions for all its supported operating systems. The stable version gives you all standard features, while the development version comprises experimental features and bug fixes.
Synfig is free and available on GitHub.
7. Toon Boom Harmony
Toon Boom Harmony is one of the most extensive animation and gaming platforms that helps animators create projects from scratch. The 2D animation program helps you produce the highest quality animation and sets standards for creative storytelling.
Toon Boom’s end-to-end platform allows you to create paperless animation and cutouts in every style. The tool also gives you the power to control and manage sound alongside special effects and a 2D/3D combination.
One feature that makes Toon Boom Harmony stand out is its drawing engine. The tool offers an unparalleled assortment of advanced drawing tools that suit any project style. You can seamlessly switch between pencil and brush, textured to solid.
Using the tool’s powerful vectorization technology, you can also switch from bitmap to vector. Toon Boom’s brushes feel natural and allow you to customize your tips in parameters such as tilt, pressure, or speed.
No matter your level of expertise, Harmony ensures that you dynamically stabilize your lines and guide your drawings using perspective guides and rulers.
It has up to four art layers in each drawing that you can use to separate lines from colors or create sub-layers for various purposes.
Its color management tool ensures that you change colors non-destructively within no time and share such changes across the production line.
While the tool produces 2D animations, it also features a complete 3D environment that allows you to manipulate your work on all axes simultaneously.
Harmony also has a non-destructive pipeline that lets you add effects when polishing up your animation. Bring your animations to life by adding as many sounds as possible from multiple audio formats. You can also use voice track to lip-sync your characters.
Toon Boom Harmony is available in its web version and supports iOS and Android operating systems. Its pricing plans come in three versions:
- Harmony 22 Essentials at $27 per month for fundamental painting, drawing, and outstanding animation tools. Perfect for animation enthusiasts.
- Harmony 22 Advanced edition at $67.50 per month for full traditional and paperless style animation. It also supports simple cut-out style animation. Ideal for freelancers, students, and studios.
- Harmony 22 Premium at $123.50 per month for creating sophisticated cut-out rigs with natural and realistic character movement. It also has special effects for all animation styles. Ideal for professionals (studios, freelancers, and schools).
8. AnimeEffects
Another excellent tweening app to create animated actions is AnimeEffects. AnimeEffects carries out its 2D animation through the deformation of polygon meshes. The app is easy to use and quickly reshapes your ideas whenever you need to remake your creations.
AnimeEffects can import images in PNG, JPEG, PSD, OR GIF. It also offers various animation keys, including rotating, moving, scaling, bone deformation, opacity, and changing images.
If you use the PSD image format, AnimeEffects will support layer clipping, among other blending modes. The platform also promotes graphic tablet operations and is well known for its paint tool that allows for intuitive deformation.
AnimeEffects was released in 2017 and supported Windows 7, 8, and 10 operating systems. It is also available for free download on MacOS and Linux. The best part is that AnimeEffects does not impose any restrictions on your work at any point.
The app is free.
9. Expressive Animator
Expressive Animator made it to my top list of the best tweening apps to create animated actions. It is known to create beautiful 2D vector animations and motion graphics for multiple platforms in minutes.
With Expressive Animator, you can improve your products and enhance web pages and mobile apps using professional raster and vector animations. The tool allows you to export your animations as SVG, WebM video files, APNG, and Lottie.
You can also use the software’s influential animators to give life to static assets such as banners, animated logos, illustrations, and icons.
Expressive Animator allows you to easily create 2D motion graphics, live stream overlays, and breathtaking animation experiences for the world to admire.
Expressive Animator’s filters and effects will make your animations unique. The app allows you to work easier and faster by pre-composing your animations as scenes to be used in the main composition.
Path effects enable you to create hand-drawn animated text, self-drawing illustrations, and animated strokes.
Its powerful predefined easing ensures you obtain professional-looking animations without additional keyframes. You can also access and use some of your locally pre-installed fonts to write, edit, or create magnificent text animations in minutes.
One thing that makes Expressive Animator stand out is its ability to function offline. You can also use it from a USB stick without prior installation and switch to dark mode to comfortably use it in low light conditions.
The app is lightweight as it consumes less device memory than other apps. It also allows you to keyframe compositions and change parameters over time.
With Expressive Animator, you can automatically generate in-betweens from two keyframes for smooth transitions. The app supports the organization of elements in hierarchical order and can be independently viewed or manipulated.
In addition to its web version, the Expressive Animator app is available on multiple platforms, including Mac, Windows, Android, iPhone, and Linux.
You can start your animation journey with the Expressive Animator suite to enjoy all its features with a single subscription of $24.99 per month or save up to 20% with yearly subscriptions.
10. Bestsnip Animation Studio
Bestsnip is one of the web-based 2D animation apps that automatically generate in-between frames out of your keyframes. You can easily use Bestsnip from your browser, draw keyframes, edit curves, and change points.
When creating videos with Bestsnip, you’ll first receive a preview of the prepared video for possible mistakes before you can save it to a resolution of 1929×1080 pixels.
It is one of the best animation apps that let you create animation videos on your phone. Chrome gives you the greatest Bestsnip desktop version as it has an optimized design that appropriately works with pens on Android tablets.
Bestsnip promises you transparency; curves that cannot be edited and points that cannot be changed. The feature-rich tool is ideal for creating ideas from scratch. So, whether you want to create memes or a small animated movie, Bestsnip is a fantastic option.
Its desktop version is available on Chrome, Safari, and Firefox. Its mobile version is available on the same platforms, but the app can also be downloaded for free on Google PlayStore. Bestsnip Animation programs are ideal for beginners, professionals, and experts.
11. Aphalina Animator
Aphalina Animator is visual software for creating fast and interactive SVG animations. The SVG animations look crisp on all displays, including ultra hi-dpi/retina. It features Greensock animation (GSAP) that offers the best performance and browser compatibility.
For ages, flash developers have created animations using visual tools. But in an age where HTML5 has taken precedence, you need a high-performance JScript animation library like Aphalina’s GSAP to create beautiful and fast animations that work across devices.
Aphalina Animator has a sophisticated timeline editor that controls keyframes for every aspect, including all transform components. It gives you complete control over unlimited timelines per scene and timeline playbacks from events such as mouse clicks or mouseover.
With Aphalina Animator, you can publish your work everywhere. You can create animated infographics, icons, banners, and illustrations to use in blogs or web pages. Aphalina embeds all images, JavaScript code, and graphics into one HTML file.
Aphalina offers an unlimited free trial for all its features to help you create html5 animation without writing any code. But if you wish to explore more features, you can subscribe to a Personal plan for a one-time fee of $60 or a Business plan for a one-time fee of $120.
Download the Aphalina Animator app to your desktop to enjoy the seamless creation of interactive animation based on SVG.
12. Jitter
Last on my list of the best tweening apps to create animated actions is Jitter. With Jitter, you can easily create stunning animated content in seconds. The tool features animation presets that allow you to explore ideas faster and customize everything later.
The app seamlessly integrates with your tools, so you can easily import designs from Figma with a click. You can also export GIFs, 4K videos, or Lottie and share content on social media, websites, or other apps.
Jitter is 100% web-based, and the tool saves you the energy of starting everything from scratch. It has multiple templates to help you amplify your creation whenever you want. While you can access it on mobile, the experience can be degraded.
You can indefinitely use Jitter for free through its Personal plan or upgrade to its Pro Plan at $12 per month to access more advanced export features.
Final Words
There you have it! 12 amazing apps that you can create animation actions with. The best thing is that each app has unique functionalities that will give your creation creative perspectives.
Some of these apps are free or come with free trials, so you can settle on an app once you feel it meets your needs.
But if you are specifically looking for an app that can help you create vector graphics and online animation for rich web applications, television series, game development, commercials, and other interactive projects, I recommend Adobe Animate.
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