Creating a video with various illustrations, drawings, original designs, or computer-generated effects to move them with eye-catching style and in many artistic ways is called an animated video. If you are a Mac user, you will need animation software for Mac to create such videos.
There are various scenarios where you can use animated videos. You can create explainer videos, instructional videos, short films, branded videos, corporate videos, product demos, and so much more by using animation only. So in this article, we will talk about the best paid and free animation software for Mac available on the market for you.
Part 1. Top 10 animation software for Mac [Free & Paid]
1. Unity
Unity is a game engine that supports animation and top-quality video making more than many apps going around. Having popular and well-known games like Temple Run, Assassin's Creed, and Angry Birds Epic, it is one of the most recognized game production and animation apps. Providing the producers, directors, and artists with the liberty enables them to explore their potentials in animation and filmmaking.
Features:
- Top-notch editing tools provided by Unity enable you to get your angles, lights and movements right on cue.
- Shortened review cycles make up for easier usage.
- Achieve high resolutions in milliseconds with widely recognized tools.
- Wonderful colour grading features.
2. Adobe Animate
You can use this 2D animation software for Mac to animate games, web content, TV Shows or any other form. It is a top-rated free animation software for Mac. Offering coding options help you to add audio providing a perfect and smooth user experience. The animation you create can be published on any platform, including HTML5 Canvas, WebGL, and Flash/Adobe Air.
Features:
- Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator Content churn out some wonderfully good animations.
- Animations can be easily shared on social media platforms.
- Sound clips, characters, audio rigs and backgrounds make the animations more value-added.
- The Adobe Animate Camera helps you to take captivating shots by adding intriguing aspects to your video making.
- Wonderful editing tools.
3. Moovly
Moovly is one of the best software for Mac in terms of video making. It especially promotes and unlocks opportunities for professional video making and editing. Ideally, the video lengths should remain between 2-5 minutes, but in case of exceptions, breaking it down into chapters is recommended.
Features:
- Moovly encourages and supports video making in different styles, including cartoonish animations, whiteboard animations, or documentaries.
- Easily exportable to any social media platform.
- Colour grading, different templates and fonts cover the technical intricacies this app offers.
- It can generate subtitles.
- Good editing tools.
4. VidToon
Introducing modifications over time has now attained a maximum video length timing of 25 minutes compared to a mere 3 minutes earlier. 2D animation software for Mac, this one impresses when it comes to animated videos. It has improved its length by over eight times, with very little free software for Mac offering long video timings.
Features:
- Already installed animated characters for multiple niches.
- The wonderful camera features enhance the screen quality.
- In-built GIFs and icons prove to be time-saving options.
- HD background images and musical files are ready for you every moment.
- Export to social media platforms.
5. Doodly
One of the best animation software for Mac, Doodly offers a vast range of features that makes it different from other animation platforms. It ensures to guide you through your video production journey. Even if you're not a pro at video making, it can still provide great outputs. Ensuring great outputs bring down the time cap regarding the completion of your tasks.
Features:
- Easy to use, not requiring any video production expertise.
- Supports whiteboard, blackboard and even green screen animations.
- Allows you to draw the images you want to use in your animation.
- Supports voiceovers and perfectly syncs them with the video.
- Music of any genre can be installed in the video.
6. Powtoon
Powtoon is recognizable as one of the top animation apps for Mac. It allows the users to produce high-quality, engaging and enjoyable video content. Communication with your audience through visuals is what this software talks about.
Features:
- You don't need to be an expert to operate this.
- Presence of hundreds of animated characters.
- Eye-Catching video backgrounds and templates.
- Magical soundtracks amplify the video quality.
- Enables business growth.
7. Blender
It is a free animation software for Mac, providing relief to aspiring and struggling artists and businesses. It aims to provide the best 3D technology as a tool to artists around the globe free of cost, inciting a great art culture. Many businesses and countless people benefit from this quality ecosystem which brings together some of the top tools for making videos.
Features:
- Advanced sculpting tools and brushes.
- Top-quality resolution and colour grading tools.
- One of the best VFX trackers going around as recognized by VFX experts.
- Top sound synchronization system.
- Fonts, colours and layouts are adjustable.
8. Toon Boom Harmony
This 2D animation software Mac is tipped out to be one of the most improved animation software in recent times. With the demand for short animated stories increasing, it has adapted rather quickly to keep up with changing trends. It's a game engine that is a hub for many game developers. It also makes up for a storytelling website without seizing to impress using the visuals that support the already well etched out plotlines. Exhibiting emotions, style and creativity in their animations, they bring out the best in artists enlightening their artistic freedom.
Features:
- It supports paperless and cut-out animations.
- Modifications and technological advancement in lighting, shading and special effects.
- Freedom to artists to express themselves.
- Commendable grass-root initiatives.
- Soundtracks and musicals.
9. Pencil
It is a 2D free animation software for Mac that allows you to draw animations by hand with the help of bitmap and vector graphics. It is a prototyping tool supporting GUI, and its latest 3.1 version coming out recently.
Features:
- Works for different platforms.
- Different user interfaces can be used on mobiles and desktops.
- Built-in collections include flowchart elements and general-purpose shapes.
- Supports many export formats such as PNG and HTML.
- Allows you to illustrate by hand.
10. Maya
Maya is one of the best software for Mac with 3D visual effects software supporting character creations, simulations and drawings. It is also known as modeling and rendering software. It enables artists and users to create explosions and bring exciting characters to life with its innovative animation software creating intriguing scenarios. It offers a great deal of technology in terms of the edition of the videos and the camera angles they offer.
Features:
- Engaging and highly effective animation tools that can help to build intriguing character stories.
- Showcase and exhibit the 3D effect in scenes by using top-notch modelling tools.
- Real-time simulations enhance the visual effects and captivate the audience with breathtaking graphics.
- You can render your content easily.
- Wonderful and accurate analytics.
Wondershare UniConverter — All-in-one Video Toolbox for Windows and Mac.
Edit videos on Mac by trimming, cropping, adding effects, and subtitles.
Converter videos to any format at 90X faster speed.
Compress your video or audio files without quality loss.
Excellent smart trimmer for cutting and splitting videos automatically.
Nice AI-enabled subtitle editor for adding subtitles to your tutorial videos automatically.
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Part 2. Bonus tip: How to convert or compress an animation video without losing quality
A finished animated video can be large-sized. But animation software doesn't provide video compression and conversion features. So it is essential to get third-party software to make up for that. Wondershare UniConverter is an all-in-one video toolbox to convert, compress and edit videos without any hassle. It can reduce the size of your video without losing quality and convert your video to more than 1,000 formats.
Follow the steps below to convert an animation video format and compress it.
Step 1 Run Wondershare UniConverter and select Video Compressor
Download, install and launch UniConverter on your Mac. Select the Video Compressor option given at the extreme left on your screen.
Step 2 Import animation videos.
Press the + sign to browse through the videos and select the videos you want to compress. It is possible to add an entire folder if required. The drag and drop option for importing is also available in this window.
Step 3 Select file size and output format.
Click on the Settings icon to select the required size and quality to compress the video. And choose the output format of the video before pressing the OK button to proceed.
Step 4 Start compression and conversion.
You can select the desktop location for saving the file from the Files location icon. Click the Start All button to start the process. You'll find all the successfully compressed videos in the Finished tab.
Another way to compress multiple files is to use the Converter section with the same compression parameters. You can choose the targeted format and change the settings to select file quality, frame rate, and bitrate. In this way, a new compressed can be attained for all the added files.
Try Wondershare UniConverter for free now!
Over 3,591,664 people have downloaded it to try the advanced features.
Part 3. Conclusion
So here we have provided our top 10 picks as the best animation software for Mac. These animation apps for Mac offer uniqueness, quality and a sense of identity to your artistic animations. Moreover, Wondershare UniConverter can help you edit your videos and do almost anything you want with them, including conversion and compression.