I’m looking for some simple but decent animation software and I have a curated list of 41 to consider.

7. Autodesk Maya ($$$$$)

One technique to finding stuff that is a bit higher-quality is to look at courses that people teach on the various learning platforms. One of the “popular ones” is called Autodesk Maya, and it is both big and powerful. There are lots of professional training options out there. Why? Because the software is expensive — $1215 a YEAR on sale — and people who have that kind of cash are likely in the business and either them or their work will pay for the training. I’m willing to pay for an animation package, sure, but not that much. Pass.

32. Synfig ($$$$$)

Synfig Studio is donation-ware, so I can try it out for free. I actually don’t care if the software is free, I am willing to pay if it does what I want and reduces my pain overhead. The software advertises that it has vector tweening (transformation in steps), layers and filters, and bones (skeleton overlaps to your artwork so you can make something move). I don’t know what I’ll need yet, but I’m willing to try it.

I was able to follow a basic tutorial to create a “Knight Rider” / Cylon look to a moving red circle on a black rectangle as the background and I created a robot image with clip art but added flashing lights.

Relatively straightforward, i managed to make it work. But perhaps a little more movement oriented and less stock art than I want. It was supposed to come with a bunch of examples, but if it did, I couldn’t find them.