There are only a handful of mobile animation applications, and Animate 2D is one of the most exciting options available. The program’s creator is an animator who wanted a fast, capable animation studio with small file sizes and decent cross-platform capabilities. He designed Animate2D as a professional tool, and high-end features like a bezier smoothing tool and tweening (a commonly used concept in 3D animation) make this an excellent resource for Android smartphone and tablet users.
Animate 2D Lite is the free version of Animate 2D. It limits functionality by requiring its users to earn “creativos.” When users make almost any type of change to their animations, they spend creativos. The program does not allow any changes to a project without creativos, and while all users start with 100 creativos, most will quickly run low on the virtual currency.
After creativos run out, users can still play their animations. Users have to download apps or sign up for online services to earn more creativos. This is annoying to say the least, but the Lite version does provide a good introduction to Animate2D’s features.
Because of the limitations of Animate 2D Lite, many aspiring animators will want to pay for the full version. With that being said, both versions offer powerful features and a few significant advantages over other animation apps. Animate2D does not overload tablets or smartphones with massive save files, and it’s powerful enough for professional use. Advanced features like PNG importing and angle pinning make it a fairly versatile tool for experienced animators, although the interface currently has some rough edges. We had trouble navigating the app on a small smartphone screen, although it worked exceptionally well on an Asus Transformer tablet.
There seem to be some technical bugs, as many users report that Animate 2D Lite won’t load after a recent update. However, we had no trouble loading the program. Occasionally, the app’s tools didn’t work as we expected, but there’s a powerful undo feature that prevented data loss.
Overall, the app is an incredible achievement for an independent developer, but it still needs some polish. Animators should check out the free version of Animate 2D before shelling out $99.99 for the Enterprise Edition. It’s a useful tool for professional animators and students who need a fairly fast, portable animation studio that works well with popular desktop applications.
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