2D & 3D Design & Animation Software
Top 2D & 3D Design & Animation Softwares List
Design & Animation is an art to capture the humans imagination. For a long time, the Animation has given freedom to human to represent new possibilities and new worlds in an innovative and more engaging way. Now a days, it is common for human to find the 2D & 3D Design & Animation in a contemporary life in all the aspects from simple interactive web pages to games, videos and movies.
As the animation technology is growing everyday, developers are continuously developing cool animation softwares. The 2D and 3D are the latest animation softwares being used in various industries. Although, some of these may be benefited for professional uses, most are generally user friendly to beginners as well.
Lets take a detailed look at the Best 2D & 3D animation softwares for both beginners and professionals.
The Best 2D Animation Software: Now a days, there are plenty of 2D animation softwares available in the market. But there are few one that stand out from the rest, and those are:
Adobe After Effects: It is a digital motion graphics and compositing software. Its main purpose is for film and video post-production.Post-production is a part of film making, video production and photography process. With Adobe After Effects, it’s easy to create smart looking visual effects. Adobe After Effects is mainly used to create visual effects for commercials and movies, but it can also be used to create image slide-shows, some tiny videos, transition effects for websites.
Adobe Flash Professional: Adobe’s animation tool, Flash, remains one of the most popular animation software packages in the market today. Particularly, it comes to web animation and who want to get started with animation design. In recent year, most of the websites chosen flash to design and increase the professional quality of the websites. As it is easy to use & flexible especially when it comes to web development, it has managed to maintain competition from some new software. Flash provides a great interactive experience.
Today most browsers provides full support to Flash applications, however it can still problematic for people using Apple devices. One of the cons of animation using Flash is a lack of compatibility with Apple devices. Therefore, additionally designers are looking to HTML 5 as an expert solution to this drawback.
Toon Boom: Once it comes to usage, Toon Boom is the most generally used 2D animation software in the professional corporation. If you are looking for a software to help you make skilled animations, then Toon Boom is the best. It comes with a lot of choices and creates awesome graphics. The drawing tools are also breathtaking, produces amazing product. However, it takes quite some time to get used to the fluid interface. It is a quite expensive tool but it is a great for creating 2D animations.
Pencil: This is an animation or drawing software mostly compatible with all platforms like Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. It allows to design popular hand-drawn animation i.e. cartoon using both bitmap and vector graphics. Pencil is free and open source GUI prototyping tool, easy to install and used to create mockups in well-liked desktop platforms.
Adobe Photoshop: Adobe Photoshop is an image editing software developed & manufactured by Adobe Systems. Photoshop is considered one of the premier photo editing software tool. The software allows users to manipulate, crop, resize, and correct color on digital photos. The software is particularly popular amongst professional photographers and graphic designers. Photoshop can be used to enhance your images if you are working on a web page, Powerpoint presentation.
3D softwares:
In recent years, 3D Animation has become most popular with a lot of skilled animators opting to try to do 3D work, either in films or for short videos. 3D animation is slowly, but surely becoming the norm with many of the leading production companies in the United States and Europe, setting the bar high in terms of animation quality.
Autodesk-3D Max: Autodesk 3D Max, also known as 3D Studio Max developed and produced by Autodesk Media. It is a experienced 3D computer graphics program. It helps in making 3D models for objects, animations, animated images and popular games. It provides modeling & plug-in features which are compatible for Microsoft Windows platform. It is widely used to develope video games & art applications, commercial TV & architecture studios and many more. It is also used for making movie effects and movie pre-visualization.
Additionally to this modeling & animation tools, the newest version of 3D Max provides features like particle systems in which objects that generate particle sub-objects over time for the purpose of simulating snow, rain, dust, etc. You use particle systems primarily in animations, customizable user interface, create mapping an object & dynamic simulation.
Autodesk Maya: Maya 3D animation & modeling software offers thorough creative set of features on a production platform which are highly comprehensive & extensive in nature. Maya 3D provides exclusive set of tools with amazing designing, modeling & task of creating a shader object with a great productivity.
Autodesk Mudbox: Mudbox, a proprietary tool developed by Autodesk. The Mudbox tool is generally used by artists, modelers, and texture artists. It is computer-based & professional tool of designing. It is a digital 3D sculpting and painting tool helps in making games, film, television, and design. The primary application of Mudbox is high-resolution digital sculpting, texture painting, displacement and normal map generation, despite, it is used as a design tool. It enables to develop production-ready 3D digital art-work. Mudbox offers a high-end and professional, quality tools that supports in creating highly sensible 3D characters and compelling concept designs in short time.
Autocad: AutoCAD is a industrial software application offers both 2D and 3D computer-aided design (CAD) functionality. This software is a leader in industry for designing, modelling, architectural drawing and engineering software. It is developed and marketed by Autodesk. AutoCAD is probably running on micro-computers with controllers of internal graphics. Prior, AutoCAD is the commercial Computer-aided design program functioning on separate graphics terminal. It features extended interface that helps in improving the process of design and the productivity improvements that speed up the workflow process.
Rhinoceros 3D: Rhinoceros (abbreviated as Rhino) is an industrial 3D computer graphics and computer-aided design (CAD) application software. Rhinoceros is developed for multiple operating systems like different versions of Microsoft Windows.
The main focus of Rhinoceros 3D software is a computer graphics to produce mathematical representation of curves and free-form surfaces. Rhinoceros is used in in commercial as well as for multimedia & graphic design. It also involves in processes of computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), rapid prototyping and reverse engineering .
3D cad: 3D CAD is a 3D computer-aided design and drafting (CADD). The 3D CAD is the use of computer technology in designing and documentation. Autodesk developed 3D CAD software to explore design ideas, visualize concepts. It also helps the users to simulate how designs will perform in the real world. Depending on design process requirements, either 2D vector-based graphics or 3D modeling of solid surfaces, CAD programs offers different features.
As the animation technology is growing everyday, developers are continuously developing cool animation softwares. The 2D and 3D are the latest animation softwares being used in various industries. Although, some of these may be benefited for professional uses, most are generally user friendly to beginners as well.
Lets take a detailed look at the Best 2D & 3D animation softwares for both beginners and professionals.
The Best 2D Animation Software: Now a days, there are plenty of 2D animation softwares available in the market. But there are few one that stand out from the rest, and those are:
Adobe After Effects: It is a digital motion graphics and compositing software. Its main purpose is for film and video post-production.Post-production is a part of film making, video production and photography process. With Adobe After Effects, it’s easy to create smart looking visual effects. Adobe After Effects is mainly used to create visual effects for commercials and movies, but it can also be used to create image slide-shows, some tiny videos, transition effects for websites.
Adobe Flash Professional: Adobe’s animation tool, Flash, remains one of the most popular animation software packages in the market today. Particularly, it comes to web animation and who want to get started with animation design. In recent year, most of the websites chosen flash to design and increase the professional quality of the websites. As it is easy to use & flexible especially when it comes to web development, it has managed to maintain competition from some new software. Flash provides a great interactive experience.
Today most browsers provides full support to Flash applications, however it can still problematic for people using Apple devices. One of the cons of animation using Flash is a lack of compatibility with Apple devices. Therefore, additionally designers are looking to HTML 5 as an expert solution to this drawback.
Toon Boom: Once it comes to usage, Toon Boom is the most generally used 2D animation software in the professional corporation. If you are looking for a software to help you make skilled animations, then Toon Boom is the best. It comes with a lot of choices and creates awesome graphics. The drawing tools are also breathtaking, produces amazing product. However, it takes quite some time to get used to the fluid interface. It is a quite expensive tool but it is a great for creating 2D animations.
Pencil: This is an animation or drawing software mostly compatible with all platforms like Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. It allows to design popular hand-drawn animation i.e. cartoon using both bitmap and vector graphics. Pencil is free and open source GUI prototyping tool, easy to install and used to create mockups in well-liked desktop platforms.
Adobe Photoshop: Adobe Photoshop is an image editing software developed & manufactured by Adobe Systems. Photoshop is considered one of the premier photo editing software tool. The software allows users to manipulate, crop, resize, and correct color on digital photos. The software is particularly popular amongst professional photographers and graphic designers. Photoshop can be used to enhance your images if you are working on a web page, Powerpoint presentation.
3D softwares:
In recent years, 3D Animation has become most popular with a lot of skilled animators opting to try to do 3D work, either in films or for short videos. 3D animation is slowly, but surely becoming the norm with many of the leading production companies in the United States and Europe, setting the bar high in terms of animation quality.
Autodesk-3D Max: Autodesk 3D Max, also known as 3D Studio Max developed and produced by Autodesk Media. It is a experienced 3D computer graphics program. It helps in making 3D models for objects, animations, animated images and popular games. It provides modeling & plug-in features which are compatible for Microsoft Windows platform. It is widely used to develope video games & art applications, commercial TV & architecture studios and many more. It is also used for making movie effects and movie pre-visualization.
Additionally to this modeling & animation tools, the newest version of 3D Max provides features like particle systems in which objects that generate particle sub-objects over time for the purpose of simulating snow, rain, dust, etc. You use particle systems primarily in animations, customizable user interface, create mapping an object & dynamic simulation.
Autodesk Maya: Maya 3D animation & modeling software offers thorough creative set of features on a production platform which are highly comprehensive & extensive in nature. Maya 3D provides exclusive set of tools with amazing designing, modeling & task of creating a shader object with a great productivity.
Autodesk Mudbox: Mudbox, a proprietary tool developed by Autodesk. The Mudbox tool is generally used by artists, modelers, and texture artists. It is computer-based & professional tool of designing. It is a digital 3D sculpting and painting tool helps in making games, film, television, and design. The primary application of Mudbox is high-resolution digital sculpting, texture painting, displacement and normal map generation, despite, it is used as a design tool. It enables to develop production-ready 3D digital art-work. Mudbox offers a high-end and professional, quality tools that supports in creating highly sensible 3D characters and compelling concept designs in short time.
Autocad: AutoCAD is a industrial software application offers both 2D and 3D computer-aided design (CAD) functionality. This software is a leader in industry for designing, modelling, architectural drawing and engineering software. It is developed and marketed by Autodesk. AutoCAD is probably running on micro-computers with controllers of internal graphics. Prior, AutoCAD is the commercial Computer-aided design program functioning on separate graphics terminal. It features extended interface that helps in improving the process of design and the productivity improvements that speed up the workflow process.
Rhinoceros 3D: Rhinoceros (abbreviated as Rhino) is an industrial 3D computer graphics and computer-aided design (CAD) application software. Rhinoceros is developed for multiple operating systems like different versions of Microsoft Windows.
The main focus of Rhinoceros 3D software is a computer graphics to produce mathematical representation of curves and free-form surfaces. Rhinoceros is used in in commercial as well as for multimedia & graphic design. It also involves in processes of computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), rapid prototyping and reverse engineering .
3D cad: 3D CAD is a 3D computer-aided design and drafting (CADD). The 3D CAD is the use of computer technology in designing and documentation. Autodesk developed 3D CAD software to explore design ideas, visualize concepts. It also helps the users to simulate how designs will perform in the real world. Depending on design process requirements, either 2D vector-based graphics or 3D modeling of solid surfaces, CAD programs offers different features.