Hand Drawn 2D Digital Animation - Get Started with These 3 Free Applications

Penguin Jump Pencil Roughs by TET.

Hand drawn 2D animation, more commonly described as 'traditional' animation, where each character movement is meticulously drawn frame by frame is still one of the most versatile forms of the art. Essentially, if you can draw it, then it can be animated. There's really no limits other than your own drawing and animation skills.

If you already have a digital drawing tablet or pen display monitor and want to get into hand drawn, 2D digital animation then these three applications are a great starting point and they're all completely free.

Reallusion Animation@Work Competition - Try CrazyTalk Animator 3 and Win

Reallusion's Animation@Work competition is back after a four year hiatus in which time CrazyTalk Animator has grown from version 2 to 3 with features making it easier to use, more time saving, and more powerful than ever for 2D animation. Create an animation with CrazyTalk Animator 3 and enter it into the competition for a chance to win up to US$2000.00.

CrazyTalk Animator 3 literally caters to all skill levels of 2D animator from the complete beginner with no drawing skills whatsoever to the power user who loves nothing better than to bring their own original artwork to life with the least amount of effort.

Infinite Monkey Theorem Animated Short - Part 5

Scene 2 from my storyboard, Infinite Monkeys.

Work on my Infinite Monkey animated short is definitely back on track since my last update and my previous part 4 post.

To get things moving again I've decided not to spend time creating a final draft storyboard that uses all the actual props and characters.

This is something that you'd generally do if you were planning to show the storyboard to someone else for feedback. At this point I'm not planning to do that so I'm going bypass it and create and animate each scene as I go, saving a bit of time.