Anime Studio 6
© 2009 Smith Micro
This animation toolkit for Mac or Windows is designed to let you make 2D animated cartoons. Content includes ready-to-use cartoon characters, props, video, and sounds, plus tutorials with sample files. To get started, you sketch your original art (a tablet is useful), scan in or import graphics. The vector graphics let you use multiple layers and resize your images with no loss in quality. A "bone rigging system" lets you add a skeleton to any image to bring it to life. You don't need new art for each individual frame as you animate -- just adjust the bones to your desired position and the program will generate the movement for you. A timeline feature lets you drag and drop segments, up to two minutes in length. You can add audio in WAV and AIFF formats. Work can be saved directly to YouTube, or saved as SWF Flash files, AVI and MOV formats.
$50, Windows, Mac OSX
Teaches: art, creativity