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I'm looking for animation software which would allow me something that seems quite simple to me - basically, I need a bitmap editor which allows me to easily work with layers and edit them frame by frame.

Long story, I have got a bunch of bitmap animated images that I need to move around and individually edit to create a longer animation out of individual images + have basic tools for editing, drawing on the images etc. It sounded like a simple task to me, but it turns out that 3+ hours of googling and installation of a bunch of professional video editing and animation programs didn't really bear any fruit.
For using layers there is Photoshop. You can easily have layers with fading so you can see what you are working over, without getting confused. (Only for people as stupid as me)
The problem is it is not cheap. I am using CS2 and Elements that use to be long to my father after I paid the upgrade for the last version, but there is a free trial version here http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/photoshop.html

For photographers it is really good, it was the de facto tool about ten years ago, and I have used it to make a few "animated" characters, but I suck at art.
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Fenixp: I'm looking for animation software which would allow me something that seems quite simple to me - basically, I need a bitmap editor which allows me to easily work with layers and edit them frame by frame.

Long story, I have got a bunch of bitmap animated images that I need to move around and individually edit to create a longer animation out of individual images + have basic tools for editing, drawing on the images etc. It sounded like a simple task to me, but it turns out that 3+ hours of googling and installation of a bunch of professional video editing and animation programs didn't really bear any fruit.
Are you sure Photoshop can't do what you want? https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#safe=off&q=photoshop+animation

Ninja'd.

I use Flash for animation but that's cartoon stuff and vector-based, not raster/bitmap/pixels.
Post edited May 25, 2015 by tfishell
I always use GIMP for anything involving image layers.
Try giving Blender a try. It's free, supported by the community and can do what some of the best software packages in the professional industry can do.
Post edited May 26, 2015 by JDelekto
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Fenixp:
As others have said - photoshop is fairly powerful - though whether or not you have it...

A good alternative that may suite your needs is Toon Boom Studio - used it myself years ago. Theres a free version (or was) that simply restricted video output size and had a watermark on it - good enough to see if its of any use.

Dont forget though, animation always SEEMS simple and straighforwards - but rarely is.
Can you do Traditional 2D animation on the level of Disney and Warner Bros.?
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Fenixp: snip
Are you doing layered animations? Like front/back/backer/backest. Or are you doing stuff with more dimension to them? Examples would be nice since there's usually software that makes particular styles easier.
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JDelekto: Try giving Blender a try. It's free, supported by the community and can do what some of the best software packages in the professional industry can do.
Second that suggestion. Although Blender takes some time getting used to, it is extremely powerful and can do a lot of things. And it is free and open-source.

I have to admit that I never used it for 2d animation though, I use it mainly for video editing and occasionally some 3d animations. This post at the blender forum contains some links to 2d animation tutorials.
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FT337mZn: Second that suggestion. Although Blender takes some time getting used to
That's an understatement. You can spend years learning blender basics. Then you have the hurdle of discovering whether your artistic talents actually merit studying a complicated program that you might not be able to apply at the hobbyist/professional level.

For rapid production even at the hobbyist level there are much better programs. Blender is an investment, and no one can foresee the benefits at the end of it due to it being a complete mess of features and interface. Technically anyone can figure out how to do something in it in the same way Linux can technically do anything if you're an expert at it. Point being that the potential is far greater than the practicality and that the average user will never reach the stage where all of those "could be's" are even a possibility.
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FT337mZn: Second that suggestion. Although Blender takes some time getting used to
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MaximumBunny: That's an understatement. You can spend years learning blender basics. Then you have the hurdle of discovering whether your artistic talents actually merit studying a complicated program that you might not be able to apply at the hobbyist/professional level.

For rapid production even at the hobbyist level there are much better programs. Blender is an investment, and no one can foresee the benefits at the end of it due to it being a complete mess of features and interface. Technically anyone can figure out how to do something in it in the same way Linux can technically do anything if you're an expert at it. Point being that the potential is far greater than the practicality and that the average user will never reach the stage where all of those "could be's" are even a possibility.
I use Blender productively for video editing. As a hobbyist with no prior experience, it maybe took me a week to become productive with video editing, so speaking of years seems a bit far-fetched for me, even though learning animation is of course a different thing.
Regarding other software: If you cannot afford to spend thousands of dollars for some commercial software, your choice is naturally limited. At least as far as free video editing software on Windows goes, I claim that Blender is by far the best, unless you can live with Windows Movie Maker and its limitations and annoying quirks (like randomly cutting off the last seconds of your video).
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FT337mZn: Regarding other software: If you cannot afford to spend thousands of dollars for some commercial software, your choice is naturally limited. At least as far as free video editing software on Windows goes, I claim that Blender is by far the best, unless you can live with Windows Movie Maker and its limitations and annoying quirks (like randomly cutting off the last seconds of your video).
Hitfilm Express 2 was free during a promotion and is pretty competent software. Or if someone caught Adobe's CS2 glitch you got Premier Pro for free. Point being that Windows Movie maker hasn't been the only alternative.

Blender's video editing looks like it's probably the only thing that isn't alien in that software if you can figure out how to reach that window. You're probably right about that portion being viable. I was talking about the modeling/animation part of the software which is still very horrible. Fortunately it isn't the only free alternative out there and you can mix and match enough packages to avoid that disgusting crap completely.
Thanks for all the replies guys! In the end, after trying a bunch of programs, I just said "Fuck it" and wrote an application where I explicitly said where is it that I want which things and then programatically moved them around. Worked great.
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Fenixp: Thanks for all the replies guys! In the end, after trying a bunch of programs, I just said "Fuck it" and wrote an application where I explicitly said where is it that I want which things and then programatically moved them around. Worked great.
If you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself ;-)
In my opinion Photoshop is a really expensive software, GIMP is the best option has the same tools and is free (Open source), for animation I had personally satyfing whit Pencil2D but there is a list of a good animation softwares on wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_2D_animation_software

I recomend you learn to use an opensource software because they never will be outdate
Post edited May 26, 2015 by sharp299