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Animate with Easy-to-Use and

Free Pencil2D Software

Use Pencil2D to quickly create animated videos

Summary: There are many 2D animation products available. Some are complicated and have GUIs that
are crowded with dozens of tiny items that require training for even basic operations. Also, some
products are expensive. In contrast, Pencil2D is simple yet highly capable. It enables users to complete
all animation steps, including sketching, drawing line art, and painting, and do so in an easy and
straightforward way. Additionally, it is free, open source, and cross-platform. These are some of the
reasons why it meets the needs of many users in its well-established and active user community.
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Introduction
There are numerous software products available for creating 2D animation. However, some of these
products are complicated to use and have GUIs that are crowded with an overwhelming number of
small tools, icons, controls, options, settings, and labels. Attempting to perform even basic operations in
these applications can be frustrating and require a significant amount of training. Also, some of these
products are expensive, costing hundreds of dollars a year.

Pencil2D is an alternative to these types of products, since it is simple, easy-to-use, free, and open
source. With Pencil2D you are able to focus on creating great animation instead of trying to figure out
how to use a tool. Also, Pencil2D is highly capable, so you can use it for all animation steps, including
sketching, drawing line art, and painting. Additionally, in it you can manipulate frames that contain your
artwork in a timeline, control a camera’s view of these frames, and output animated videos.

Below are a few sections on 2D animation software. The first one provides brief information on some of
the products available. Following this is a section that presents more information on the functionality in
Pencil2D, and then one to help you understand how you can use Pencil2D to perform animation steps.

Animation software
Before providing detailed information on Pencil2D in subsequent sections, a bit of information on some
other products that can support 2D animation is presented below in Table 1. This can help you
understand the range of products available and understand where Pencil2D fits in with them.

Although only a small sample of products is presented in this table, it is clear there are many choices
available for users with different needs. As per the first row in the table, Pencil2D is best for users that
want a basic, although highly-capable, product that is easy to use and free.

Category Product Site Description

Free and Pencil2D www.pencil2d.org It provides basic functionality and is
open easy to use.
source OpenToonz https://opentoonz.github.io/e It has mid-level capabilities for 2D
animation.
Synfig www.synfig.org It has good support for tweening, in
Studio which frames that are between
keyframes are automatically
calculated.
Blender www.blender.org It provides 3D animation functionality
that usually does well in comparison
tests. Functionality for 2D animation
was recently added to it.
Free and Powtoon www.powtoon.com It is simpler and has fewer features
paid than most.
versions Animaker www.animaker.com It is very user-friendly and provides a
large selection of characters and
templates for users.

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Category Product Site Description

Paid Adobe www.adobe.com/products/an Multiple pricing plans are available,
Animate imate.html including one for $239.88 per year.
Toon Boom www.toonboom.com/product Multiple pricing plans are available,
Harmony s/harmony including one for Harmony Essentials
for $185 per year and another for
Harmony Premium for $905 per year.
TVPaint www.tvpaint.com It costs €500 (about $542) for a license.

Table 1 Animation Software Categories and Sample Products

Overview of Pencil2D
In Pencil2D, the GUI is user-friendly and intuitive. Consequently, you can quickly start animating with it
and not have to go through a long learning curve. In the GUI, which is shown below in Figure 1, there are
at most seven panels displayed around the canvas in the center. These include one for tools (shown in
the upper left), one below it for associated tool options, three for colors (shown on the right), and one
for the timeline and layers (shown at the bottom). Note that these panels can be moved, undocked, and
hidden as needed.

Figure 1 Pencil2D’s User-Friendly GUI

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Also, you can set the GUI to run in any of over 20 languages, and you can run Pencil2D on Windows,
macOS, and Linux.

Helpful features to create your artwork

Pencil2D provides needed functionality, so you can sketch, draw line art, paint, and revise your artwork.
This includes the following functionality:
• Useful bitmap and vector layers. You can draw and paint in bitmap (raster) and vector layers,
using as many layers of each as needed.
• Relevant tools. Pencil2D provides 11 easy-to-understand and useful tools you can use and
configure to create your artwork. Also, four of these tools allow you to achieve subtle effects by
using pressure sensitivity on tablets.
• Convenient color selection. The color palette displayed in Pencil2D supports having custom
colors, and you can import and export custom palettes. Also, HSV and RGB color models are
supported.
• Configurable onion skin. To help create successive frames, you can configure the number of
previous and next onion skin frames displayed and the maximum and minimum opacity used in
them.
• Image importing. If needed, you can import images in various file formats created in other
applications, such as those with unique functionality, to use in Pencil2D.

Straightforward animation of your artwork

Pencil2D provides simple but complete functionality, so you can create animations of your artwork and
then export them in multiple formats.
• Frames. Easily insert, delete, copy, and move frames in the timeline to create and revise
animations.
• Camera layers. You can have one or more camera layers and pan and zoom in them to best tell a
story to viewers.
• Sound layers. Although Pencil2D does not support recording audio, you can import MP3 and WAV
files for dialog and a soundtrack into multiple sound layers.
• Videos and GIFs. You can export animations in video files in multiple formats, including MP4, and
in animated GIF files.

Animation process using Pencil2D

The main steps in the animation process and a summary of the main ways you can use Pencil2D to
accomplish them are shown below in Figure 2. In this process, steps and groups of them are repeated as
needed. For example, pencil tests are usually done a few times during the process, as changes are made
and more frames are added.

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Starting with keyframes, use the Pencil tool in a bitmap layer to sketch items inside
the frames. Use different layers for different items, such as a character in a
Sketch
foreground layer and a background in a background layer, so they are easy to
independently modify.

Play the animation to check the timing of motion and synchronization with the
Pencil soundtrack. Add, delete, copy, and move frames as needed.
Test

Use the Pen tool in a vector layer to draw clear lines over sketches. Use the Duplicate
Line Frame function and onion skins to help draw smooth motion in consecutive frames.
Art

If a color is needed from existing artwork, use the Eyedropper tool to select it. In a
layer under the line art layer, use the Brush tool to paint items. Alternatively, create a
Paint
copy of the line art in another layer and use the Paint Bucket tool to fill in color. With
this alternative, vary the Color Tolerance of the Paint Bucket to correctly fill areas.

Use the Selection, Move, Paint Bucket, and Eraser tools to change and delete parts of
artwork.
Revise

Use pan and zoom capabilities to change the camera's view of scenes, and then export
the animation as a video or animated GIF file.
Camera

Figure 2 Animation Steps and Accomplishing Them with Pencil2D

As made clear in this figure, Pencil2D enables users to complete all animation steps and do so in a
straightforward way.

Conclusion
There are many software products available for creating 2D animation. Some are complicated and have
GUIs that are crowded with dozens of tiny items that require training for even basic operations. Also,
some products are expensive, costing hundreds of dollars a year. In contrast, Pencil2D is simple yet
highly capable. It enables users to complete all animation steps, including sketching, drawing line art,

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and painting, and do so in an easy and straightforward way. Additionally, it is free, open source, and
cross-platform. These are some of the reasons why it meets the needs of many users in its well-
established and active user community.

Contact Information
For more information on Pencil2D, including video tutorials on it, visit www.pencil2d.org. You can also
download Pencil2D at this site, as well as at https://github.com/pencil2d/pencil and
https://bitbucket.org/chchwy/pencil2d.

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