Online animation maker with templates. Create animated videos that convey the essence of your project without investing much time and effort. With Renderforest animation maker, you can craft broadcast-quality videos right in your browser. Adobe offers animation apps that work with all your ideas — and each other. Animate in real time with Character Animator, or use Animate to create interactive vector animations. Create intros, transitions, and more with After Effects. And move seamlessly between them all. 6 great animation apps for the Mac The Mac has long been a premier platform for many artists, and these six apps from the Mac App Store are powerful tools for creating all kinds of animated content.

Animated Videos have become one of the signature tools of marketers worldwide for telling a story and creating effective marketing campaigns for the future.

Depending on your purpose and skills, you can choose from different types of software available both offline and online, for professionals and amateur users, 2D, 3D, whiteboard or stop motion animation tool, etc.

Below are our picks for the best animation software for mac of 2019. For more background information, see a more detailed buying advice below the picks.

Part1. Whiteboard Animation Tools
Part2. 2D Animation Tools
Part3. 3D Animation Tools
Part4. Stop Motion Animation Tools
Part5. Motion Graphics Software
How to Choose the Right Animation Software for Mac

Part1. Whiteboard Animation Tools

#1. Best Whiteboard Animation Software for Mac: VideoScribe by Sparkol

This program is produced by Sparkol and it remains one of the best whiteboard animation software programs for both Mac and PC. You can also use it on a number of mobile devices including devices that run android. There are elements of the program that works through the cloud making it very simple to upload and edit video wherever you might be.

Videoscribe works quite intuitively for building business presentations, TED talk style videos, tutorials, creative marketing solutions and more. What is produced out of this program looks hand-drawn and extremely professional for any type of marketing campaign. The best part is that you can use many of these tools to create these effects with very little animation knowledge.

Even children enjoy using this program because of its ease of use. There is a full library of stock images, animation and more as well as an extensive voiceover soundtrack that can be used with the solutions here.

The yearly and monthly subscription also ensures that there is a flexible use for the program. It also comes with a seven-day free trial with features to try before you buy.

#2. Best Free Animation Software for Mac: PowToon

This is a fantastic online presentation maker for academic use, presentations and infographics.

The program is completely free to use and has a number of animation effects on board that can make anything exported out of the program seem extremely professional.

The free templates available in the program as well as the quality of the animations that are presented within the platform make it a true favorite amongst many brands.

A number of major companies now almost exclusively trust their creative tools to Powtoon and it can be used almost anywhere where there is an Internet connection with mass compatibility.

As a fully cloud-based system there’s no use for installation or downloads to take full advantage of it. Its available for free use on any Macintosh computer as long as you are willing to use the watermark.

Part2. 2D Animation Tools

#3. Best 2D Animation Software for Mac: Toon Boom Harmony

This is a program that actually deserves some surprising recognition. The company has partnered with major film companies like Warner brothers, Disney, and Nickelodeon and it’s currently one of the best and most powerful 2-D animation suites for commercial use.

With the use of this program you can build anything from traditional animation all the way to amazing drawing tools that can produce the future of 3-D animation. The 3-D cameras and integration available in this platform can provide fundamental solutions for drawing, rendering and building beautiful projects.

There are tools and tasks available here that can suit small hobby animators all the way up to professional uses. The premium version delivers the top tool professional solutions that you might expect at of any major animation suite. The essentials level of the harmony program is designed more for hobbyists and it delivers a scaled down version of some of their more high and customization techniques.

Toon Boom not only remains one of the best 2-D animation programs for mac but it is a regular fixture in the animation world today.

#4. Runner-up, Best 2D Animation Software for Mac: Adobe Animate

Adobe is one of the successors to perhaps one of the most popular 2-D animation software is available. At the core of Animate are the flash tools that have been working to create high-quality animations since the early days of the Internet. Today the program uses vector-based publishing to produce intuitive and inexpensive animation results.

Although it may not have all of the professional animation tools that you would find in some major production suites, it’s possible to get very professional looking results.

#5. Best Free 2D Animation Software for Mac: Pencil

This is a simple and open source vector-based program that’s designed for the Mac OS X platform. It’s also available on Linux and Windows and it was originally created for producing digital comics. The platform allows animators to use the basic hand-drawn techniques that were experimented with long in the past. Pencil is an ideal program for beginners that don’t want to invest in expensive license for a program. It can teach the basic principles of animation and with a timeline feature it’s possible to add new layers to arrange fun effects.

This is one of the best programs for beginners and sketching characters as well as setting keyframes can all be done using the pen tool, fill tool and the vector layers tool. The interface on this is actually based off of some of the original Adobe flash platform’s and it produces some good quality graphics even on a tablet device. Perhaps one of the best parts of using this program is that it automatically exports everything in.FLV which gives it mass compatibility with a number of online sources. The videos that you export here will be easy to embed or upload in video sharing sources and more.

Part3. 3D Animation Tools

#6. Best 3D Animation Software for Mac: Maya

Autodesk Maya remains one of the best 3-D modeling software programs that’s designed for Mac, Windows and Linux. The program itself has migrated many of the tools away from Autodesk Mud and now has features that you would normally find in several different pieces of software for creating highly detailed 3-D models. Autodesk Maya is a 3-D modeling software that is designed mostly for professional artists but with the templates that are available for download and the massive amount of tutorials online, it is possible to see quite a difference with this software when you are working with it over time.

#7. Runner-up, Best Free 3D Animation Software for Mac: Blender

Blender is a program that is designed with open source technology for 3-D modeling and it’s made mostly for beginners that want the option to learn how to play and get comfortable with reading modeling on their Mac computer. This open-source program does feature many of the basic features that you can expect to find including rigging, animation, architectural support and even the option to create full games. The philosophy that’s behind it allows for the inclusion of many different templates and it is very well suited to use by a number of creators. Blender remains some of the best 3-D modeling software for creative artists with its completely free use.

Part4. Stop Motion Animation Tools

#8. Best for Making Stop Motion Videos: Dragonframe

Dragonframe remains one of the best stop motion software solutions for mac today. It’s one of the top choices for many of the world’s largest studios like Laika and Aardman. It can produce high-quality masterpieces in stop motion animation and it is a perfectly suited set of professional tools. The program allows for easy capture of a number of precise movements and you can also compose in light various angles using the camera controls on board. Editing images as well as performing advanced image review techniques can all be done through the program as well.

The process of inserting and editing audio can be done according to a characters needs and based off of the animation that you want to create. The advantage to using some of the precise movements and controls in this program is that you can have a wide array of improvements at your fingertips for professional products.

#9. Runner-up: Stop Motion in Movavi Video Editor

We selected this is our runner up because with this program there’s no need to pay for a dedicated piece of stop motion software. This is an open source piece of technology that delivers a full-featured video editor that suitable for many beginners.

The program itself is perfect for getting all of the features that are often teased in many full license software programs. Because it’s open source there are also a number of templates that can make it easy to use. The full-featured video editor is excellent for its features and for the newest features that are being added by the community regularly to keep up with the stop motion technology of today.

Part5. Motion Graphics Software

#10. Best Motion Graphic Animation Software for Mac: After Effects

With a number of motion graphic animation software programs available for Mac, after effects sets itself apart.

Adobe After Effects is truly one of the most masterful programs for any motion graphic artist. Of course many of the features of aftereffects can be found in other Adobe programs, but there is no other piece of software that can be so versatile for the creation of motion graphics. The way to the menus are set up and the way that the program behaves makes it an intuitive leap for 3-D modeling and 2.5 D animation.

The whole goal of aftereffects is to help you produce almost any type of animation that you may want without having to involve 3-D modeling. After effects remains one of the primary pieces of software for motion graphic work in storyboards, motion comics and more. There are elements in this program that are close to Photoshop and illustrator but they have been optimized for the purpose of creating motion graphics here.

How to Choose the Right Animation Software for Mac

When it comes down to choosing the program that you may want to purchase a license for or download on your computer, you need to be very focused into the types of animation that you are looking for and what you need out of any program. The first thing you need to understand is the various styles and techniques for animation and what you might want out of a program:

2d animation

This is the traditional style of animation that comes from the idea of cell shading or digital cell shading. In the past animators would draw images on transparent pieces of paper and then later than one frame at a time to create motion. Today drawings can be rendered and layered on top of one another using a digital timeline and computer vector animations.

3d animation

This is a completely new and different way to look at traditional animation that requires understanding the basic principles of composition, movement and 3-D modeling. Creating 3-D graphics can involve scanning objects or even piecing together various 3-D models to create characters, share complex ideas and then animate all of the items along a storyboard.

Motion graphics

A motion graphic is considered to be one of the newest forms of animation. These motion graphics are fairly common in items like banner ads, short comics and more. Usually these types of graphics are designed for commercial purposes.

Stop motion

Stop motion involves taking photos of an object and manipulating it ever so slightly to eventually produce a storyboard of motion. Completing and repeating this process over and over eventually gives the full allusion of movement. This is a very time-consuming process that often involves manipulating objects slowly over hours of movement to create just a few seconds of animation.

Presentation or whiteboard style

This is a popular style of animation that has taken off over the past few years. The online marketing videos that are produced and the specific programs that have been created for building whiteboard videos are proving that this is a format that truly keeps people engaged and remains a trend for school projects, business presentations and more.

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GIFs have got a huge craze today! I love to share them with my friends to express various shades of emotions. That apart, they can be used for the promotion of brands and products as well. For instance, you can highlight your key products, simulate products’ demos and draw attention to call to actions. Want to get into action right away? Glance through this exclusive set of the best apps to create GIFs on Mac to take your penchant for those hilarious images to an altogether new level.

There are many ways to be creative with animated GIFs. You can create memes, record videos or images and convert them into funny GIFs. With the help of a number of editing tools, you will be able to give a preferred look to your comical images. Looking forward to exploring these top GIF creator apps for Mac? Let me walk along with you as well!

Best Apps to Create GIF on Mac in 2020

#1. Giphy Capture

Giphy Capture is the simplest yet powerful app. If you want to create a short and sweet animated GIF then, you can definitely go with this app. It helps you capture videos/images up to 30 seconds.

Giphy Capture offers super easy editing features. Pick any loop and adjust it to the frame. Moreover, you can give animated captions to add style to your GIF. This will make your GIF more attention-grabbing.

Price: Free
Download

#2. CloudApp

CloudApp performs exactly what it says. Creating GIFs with it is very easy. Its simple interface will let you convert video clips and annotated images into incredible GIFs.

CloudApp will allow you to modify size, frame delay, sequence, effects and more. Once you create GIFs, save it on your Mac. Later, share those beautiful GIFs on online platforms.

Price: Free (CloudApp Pro Monthly – $8.99)
Download

#3. GIF Keyboard

Simply put, “GIF Keyboard” has you fully covered with a wide variety of GIFs like reactions, music, funny and more. You can browse through the entire collection and choose the ones that seem perfect for your message. Oh yeah, it also features tons of trending GIFs so that your messaging time remains in the top gear.

You can use the app to save your favorite GIFs. If you want to create a special collection, you would really appreciate this feature. That aside, you will be able to use it with several apps including iMessage, Slack, Telegram, Facebook, Reddit and more.

Price: Free
Download

#4. GIF Brewery

Bringing stunning GIFs to the world. GIF Brewery is a powerful app that converts video files to incredible GIFs. You need to make a screen recording or import videos. Apply a few editing features.

Mac Animation Free

Resize, crop and set frame rate – count – delay as you want. To make images look more attractive, you can use filters like color, captions and more. Your own GIF is ready to be saved and shared.

Price: Free
Download

#5. Cinemagraph Pro

If you are looking for a powerful app to create genuinely unique GIFs, take a look at Cinemagraph Pro. It turns a full-motion video into an animated image. It also gives you control and lets you choose what moves and what does not. Using this, you can create various kinds of GIFs, like one with water waves hitting the shore, but people on the beach are motionless.

When you launch the app for the first time, you are walked through an impressive tutorial, that shows you how to make the best of it. Apart from these, Cinemagraph Pro has several different tools that take your image to the next level. Give this one a green signal.

Price: Free (Solo – $4.99)
Download

#6. PicGIF Lite

Like creating GIFs? If yes, “PicGIF Lite” would be a great addition to your collection.

What I like a lot about this app is that it makes creating GIFs from photos and videos pretty simple. As this app works with several images and video formats like JPEG, TIFF, BMP, PNG, TGA, RAW, PIC, MOV, MPEG, MP4, M4V, 3GP, AVI etc, you will be able to design GIFs with ease.

You can set FPS or frame delay to perfectly fine tune the animation speed and also adjust the size of the GIFs. Moreover, PicGIF Lite lets you share your creation via iMessage, Tumblr and email as well.

Price: Free
Download

#7. Smart GIF Maker

Smart GIF Maker is such a cool app, helping you modify GIFs in a better way. Built with the simple user interface, Smart GIF Maker lets you add/delete frames and photos. You can set the GIFs loop counts and frame duration.

Simply, drag and drop images to frames. You can even change the order of frames. Once saved, you can export or share GIFs with your colleagues, friends, and family.

Price: Free (Watermarks – $1.99)
Download

#8. Gifable – GIF Screen Recorder

In just three easy steps, you can create hilarious GIFs on your Mac, all thanks to Gifable – screen recorder app. After clicking on the Gifable icon and dragging your mouse over the area to record, the app will automatically start recording.

This app is a perfect tool for bloggers, social media influencers, marketers, and people who create tutorials for followers. Before you can share your creation, you get a chance to see the preview of the GIF. For quick and easy copy-paste, you can use the clipboard.

Aurora 3d Animation Maker For Mac Free

Price: $1.99
Download

#9. GIF Live

GIF To Live is an epitome of advancements. It is packed with hi-end features that help you create brilliant GIFs. You can easily convert GIF and video to GIFs within a few clicks.

Its innovative frame organizer helps you create out of the box animations. You can drag and drop animations according to frames. Besides this, you can reverse animations and custom layouts to make it more personalized. Want to try this custom-built app? Go ahead, get the most out of its elegant features!

Price: $2.99
Download

#10. Ezgif

Unlike above listed Mac apps, Ezgif is an online GIF converter. It allows you to go with basic edits like crop, resize, optimize and more. You can even split and merge multiple GIFs in one frame.

You can capture up to 400 photos and videos to create GIFs. The app has the file-size limit of 30 MB. However, you won’t be able to host images or videos hence, ensure that you download GIFs once they are prepared.

Price: Free
Try It

That’s all, mate!

Over To You!

Have you liked these finest GIF creator apps for Mac? May I know the name of apps that are going to liven up your messaging time? Feel free to let us know their names and the features you have liked in them.

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Jignesh Padhiyar is the co-founder of iGeeksBlog.com who has a keen eye for news, rumors and all the unusual stuff that happens around Apple products. During his tight schedule, Jignesh finds some moments of respite to share side-splitting contents on social media.

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