Animation has become an increasingly popular form of art and entertainment in recent years. With the growing popularity of mobile devices, especially the iPad, animators can now create high-quality animations on the go. This has led to the development of various animation apps for iPad that offer a wide range of features and tools to create stunning animations. In this article, we will explore some of the best animation apps available for iPad, highlighting their key features and benefits.
We have compiled a list of 8 Best Animation Apps For iPad for your consideration, which have undergone rigorous testing and evaluation by our team of experts.
Table of Contents
8 Best Animation Apps For iPad
1. Animation Desk
Animation Desk is an app that allows users to create frame-by-frame animations from scratch or over videos, images, and Photoshop layers. It supports various export formats and can be used on both iPads and iPhones. The app has received recognition from multiple sources, including being recommended by Apple, Yahoo Tech, TechCrunch, and educational platforms such as edshelf and EducationalAppStore.com.
In terms of animation creation, Animation Desk allows users to import PSD layers, create animations over videos and photos, and customize aspects such as aspect ratio, FPS, and duration. The app includes various drawing tools such as brushes, erasers, selection tools, layers, personalized color palettes, and the ability to add text. It is also compatible with Apple Pencil 1, 2, Wacom, and Adonit styluses.
Additional useful tools include frame tags, rulers, frame preview, zoom and pan, and canvas rotation. As for export options, Animation Desk allows users to export individual frames as images, videos, PSD layers, PDFs, and GIFs (up to 640×480 px), with the ability to add music and combine animations into sequences.
Some of these features are only available through a Creativity 365 or Animation Desk Pro subscription. The latter includes access to Kdan Cloud storage, with plans ranging from $4.99 to $29.99 per month or $59.99 per year. Additional discounts are available for students and teachers.
Users can manage their subscriptions through their iTunes account settings and cancel at least 24 hours before the end of the current subscription period to avoid automatic renewal. For any questions, users can contact Animation Desk’s helpdesk or visit their support website.
2. RoughAnimator – animation app
RoughAnimator is a fully featured hand drawn animation application for iPad. It is designed by an animator for animators, offering a powerful yet straightforward solution for professionals and beginners alike. With RoughAnimator, users can create traditional hand drawn frame-by-frame animation anytime and anywhere they go.
The application features a timeline with an unlimited number of layers and easily adjustable exposure length of individual drawings, making it suitable for both pose-to-pose and straight-ahead animating. Onion skinning, preview playback, and the ability to scrub along the timeline provide further support for users.
RoughAnimator also allows users to import audio for lip syncing and video for rotoscoping animation. The application offers custom brushes and supports Apple Pencil, Logitech Crayon, Adonit, and Wacom Bluetooth styluses. Users can control the framerate and resolution of their projects and export their animated creations to Quicktime video, GIF, or image sequence.
RoughAnimator projects can be imported to Adobe Flash/Animate, After Effects, and Toon Boom Harmony, making it a versatile and compatible tool for animation professionals. RoughAnimator is also available on desktop.
To see the capabilities of RoughAnimator, a short film animated with the application can be viewed at https://youtu.be/vaHuJNNPoMM.
3. Animation Creator HD
Animation Creator HD is an iPad and iPad Mini app that combines the drawing capabilities of the most popular iPad drawing apps with a powerful animation tool. The app is easy to use and allows users to create amazing, life-like animations with Retina quality and high frame rate playback. Animation Creator HD has won several awards, including App Store Essentials: Painting & Drawing, #1 Paid Entertainment App, and #10 Top Overall Paid App. It offers a variety of features, including infinite frames and animations, export to video and animated GIF, email project sharing, and an audio manager tool. Additionally, the app includes a wide range of drawing tools and effects, such as paint brush, pen, eraser, line, rectangle, and more.
Animation Creator HD also offers access to Cineverse, a cloud-based photo and video social site where users can share and enjoy creative content with others around the world. The app is available only to registered iTunes users who are of appropriate age under applicable law in their territory.
The app is regularly updated with new features, such as more drawing tools, animation sharing methods, and photo importing. The creators of Animation Creator HD value user feedback and listen to their suggestions.
All data and information contained in the app are copyrighted by miSoft, LLC. Users are encouraged to rate the app, as positive ratings help to support future updates.
4. Animation & Drawing by Do Ink
The DoInk animation iPad app has received positive feedback, being featured in the App Store, winning an Editor’s Choice Award from Children’s Technology Review, and being recommended by various sources. The app has a variety of key features, including easy-to-use vector drawing tools, flipbook and keyframe animating, and the ability to create motion paths and H.264 movies. The Drawing Editor allows users to create frame-by-frame animations or single-frame vector artwork using powerful drawing tools, while the Composition Editor allows for intuitive key-framing and timeline editing. The app also offers export options for animations rendered in H.264 or PNG format, with support for various aspect ratios. Created by the Doink team, the app is being used by over 400,000 users worldwide. Feedback and suggestions can be sent to support@doink.com.
5. Animation Pro
Animation Pro is an iPad application that allows users to create professional frame-by-frame cut-out-style animations. The app offers a variety of pro-level tools such as automatic lip-synching, cloning, motion-blur, and camera depth-of-field to produce high-quality animations.
However, it is important to note that Animation Pro is an extremely large app that requires some effort to learn and master. Prospective buyers are encouraged to review all help files and video tutorials available on http://www.hotjamdonut.com.au before making a purchase decision.
The app offers a range of features for animating, including the option to produce cut-out-style, stick-figure, or stop-motion animations, adding background images from the photo library or shooting them from within the app, adding videos as background images for rotoscoping, as well as figures, images, text, audio, and clones. The integrated File Manager helps manage all assets, and users can use onion-skins for instant previews and to see differences between previous and next frames.
Animation Pro also offers tools for creating complex posable figures from one or more items, including a library of pre-installed sample figures and the option to create custom figures using the integrated Figure Editor. Users can also stylize their figures with special effects such as Pixellate, Comic Book, and Sparkle.
Users can scale, flip, and rotate items within figures, color, tint, and set opacity, bend items, substitute items, and draw upon image items whilst animating. The app also allows figures to be cloned to produce shadows, reflections, or an army of figures that animate automatically as the parent figure changes.
Animation Pro includes a large library of sound effects, allows users to record their own audio, and add audio to frames or figures. The app also has a virtual camera feature, which allows users to pan, zoom and rotate a virtual camera, simulate camera depth of field, and animate/lip-sync the mouths on figures.
6. FlipaClip: Cartoon Animation
FlipaClip is a powerful and fun animation tool that makes frame-by-frame animation easy. With the newly redesigned app, users can make amazing animations, track their projects with a new home page and easy stacks, switch between light and dark mode, and explore new possibilities from FlipaClip video creators. The app has a growing community of animators and artists who create unique and exciting animations every day. Users can share their creations with the world on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and other popular platforms, and search for FlipaClip animations to get inspired.
FlipaClip provides the best drawing and animating experience for users whether they are sketching, storyboarding, animating, or learning. The simple and intuitive controls are easy to learn and powerful enough to bring ideas to life. Users can learn frame-by-frame animation, draw pictures and turn them into animated gifs, or draw over videos to create a rotoscope video. The app also has a lasso tool for quickly selecting content and a new paint bucket for easy color adjustments.
Users can check out their animation frame by frame or jump to the beginning or end with a tap. With everything needed to start animating, the app comes with drawing tools, animation layers, animation tools such as onion skin animating tool and frames viewer, and up to eight audio tracks for adding dialogue to animations. Users can also import their own audio files and add images and videos to their animations.
FlipaClip allows users to save their animated movies as MP4 or GIF files and post them to YouTube. Users can share their animations anywhere, including TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, or Tumblr. The app also hosts contests for users to participate in and potentially win exciting prizes.
To get inspired, users can search for #FlipaClip on Instagram or follow FlipaClip’s featured creators. Users can also follow FlipaClip’s Instagram and YouTube channel for more content. For any app issues or ideas, users can go to http://support.
7. FrameFervor – Animation App
Animate! is a free app designed for the iPad-Pro and iPad that enables users to create beautiful animations and real-life doodles. This app allows users to draw frame-by-frame, apply keyframe position interpolation, or import and draw on top of a Movie or GIF. Additionally, users can export and share their art as a GIF or Movie.
One of the notable features of Animate! is its hand-drawn frame-by-frame functionality. This feature enables users to create animations by drawing each frame individually. Another useful feature is the keyframe interpolation, which helps users create smooth animations. Additionally, this app supports the use of stylus pens, making it easier for users to create precise lines.
Animate! also includes rotoscoping, a technique used by animators to trace over live-action footage. The ghosting feature helps users to see the previous frame as a translucent image, making it easier to create animations that flow smoothly. Layering functionality is also available in this app, which allows the user to create complex animations by stacking multiple layers.
The app allows users to export their animations as GIFs or Movies. Furthermore, users can create looping animations and manipulate their drawings by scaling, translating, and rotating them. Lastly, the app includes a Rainbow Horses feature, which is an optional feature that adds a rainbow effect to the drawings.
Overall, Animate! is a feature-rich animation app that is easy to use and suitable for beginners and professionals alike. With its various drawing and exporting options, this app is an excellent tool for anyone looking to create animations or real-life doodles.
8. Stick Nodes Pro – Animator
Stick Nodes is a mobile app designed for stickman animation. It is inspired by the popular Pivot stickfigure animator and enables users to create their own stickfigure-based movies that can be exported as animated GIFs or MP4 videos. Stick Nodes is widely used among young animators and is considered to be one of the most popular animation apps available. The PRO VERSION of Stick Nodes offers several additional features including no startup ad, no watermark on exports, sound effects for frames, MP4 video export, and more stickfigure filters.
Stick Nodes offers automatic customizable frame-tweening, a simple camera to pan/zoom/rotate around the scene, movieclips that allow you to create and reuse/loop animation objects within your projects, a variety of shapes, color/scale on a per-segment basis, gradients, text fields, and sounds effects to make animations epic. The app also allows users to apply different filters to stickfigures, join stickfigures together to easily simulate holding/wearing objects, and has a large community of animators and interesting people. Users can download over 30,000+ stickfigures from the website and export their animations to GIF (or MP4 for Pro) to share them online. Stick Nodes is also compatible with pre-3.0 Pivot stickfigure files, allows users to save/open/share their projects, stickfigures, and movieclips, and includes common animation features such as undo/redo, onion-skin, background images, and more. Note that sounds, filters, and MP4-export are Pro-only features.
Stick Nodes supports several languages including English, Español, Français, Japanese, Filipino, Português, Russian, and Türkçe. The app has a thriving community where animators have a good time, help each other out, show off their work, and even create stickfigures for others to use.