Still casually looking around for web-based or mobile-based animation tools that basically let you mess with layers on a canvas.

Sean Tilley

Still casually looking around for web-based or mobile-based animation tools that basically let you mess with layers on a canvas. There seems to be some paid apps out there, but very few good free or open source options.

I’m really interested in setting up a production pipeline for Loops videos, but it feels like most of what I’m looking for is still in the desktop realm…

Sean Tilley

So far, some of the options I’ve considered:

️ Desktop:

KDEnlive - potentially overkill, you’d have to put some work in to set up your templates set up and work with custom video size, but it’s at least doable.

OBS Studio - surprisingly flexible. Again, would require a lot of customization, and you’d really just be using it to render a video file.

Web:

Motionity - an open source Web-based editor for video and motion graphics. Currently experimenting with this, hasn’t been updated since 2022.

Web Stories for WordPress - idk, I’ve played with it a bit. You could use it, especially for multiple pages. It might actually be too limited for what most people want to do, though. Good for making slides of info, but you basically would have to record your screen.

Android:

Mostly paid apps here, haven’t found much. You could use CutCap by Bytedance, I guess? Not really open in any way.

Sean Tilley

Part of my brain is saying “Just build it yourself!”, but I also know that this kind of thing is not easy to build.

The interface and layers on canvas would probably be easy enough to figure out. Processing media and video, though? Sheesh.

George Ellenburg (he/ him/ his)

@[email protected] Are you looking for something like cell animation (old skool) or something more akin to Flash? (Old skool too I guess.) Otherwise there might be some HTML5 animation packages. HTML5 and SVG pretty much replaced flash now-a-days.

Sean Tilley

@gme Hmm, I’m not sure. What I’m mostly looking for is what some motion graphics programs do - you have a canvas with layers and a timeline, and you add text, graphics and media to it. This can include bits of audio and video, and has some level of basic animation support.

Sean Tilley

Okay, for Web, Pikimov pretty much nails what I need. Took a little bit to figure out the interface, but it’s really good!

I don’t think it’s open source, but it’s really close to what I’m envisioning!

Pikimov

Pikimov is a free web motion design editor

Pikimov (pikimov.com)