Create animation drawing with Cartoon Animator.

Cartoon Animator (CTA) combines intuitive animation tools with mainstream drawing software and drawing tablets to swiftly turn illustrations into animations. Whether drawing in vector or bitmap, artists can use their favorite SVG/PSD editor to modify characters, props and scenes to animate in CTA while expanding creative possibilities with help from motion libraries and content that can be dragged and dropped. The CTA PSD and vector pipelines empower anyone with the ability to draw, to now animate!

Draw Vector

Vector artists can finally use their favorite tools like Illustrator, CorelDraw, Affinity Designer, Inkscape or Photopea and enjoy the visual smoothness and uncompromised details inherent to SVG. Directly launch the third-party editing application from CTA and create new assets or modify existing ones. Save the working file in the SVG editor and the character will then instantly update to CTA.

Watch Tutorial | Learn More About Vector Pipelines

Draw Bitmap

Cartoon Animator now connects to popular PSD editing software. Edits made in Photoshop, Affinity Designer, Krita, Photopea, and the like, are reflected back to CTA. Modify characters and assets as many times as you see fit without missing a beat!

Learn More About PSD Pipelines

From Content Creation to Animation

2D Scenes with 3D Depth

Design scenes in a layered PSD and send to Cartoon Animator. PSD layers (folders) appear as manageable scene elements in CTA. Then you can arrange the scene elements with Z-depth to easily create 3D parallax effects with animated cameras.

draw animation - psd scene with 3d depth - photoshop
draw animation - psd scene with 3d depth - cartoon animator

PSD to Prop Animation

draw animation - elastic motions
Elastic Motions
Apply Elastic Motion effects to your props, and generate animations with custom speed and motion curves.

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draw animation - compound prop animations
Compound Prop Animations
Follow simple PSD layer naming rules to group items and set object hierarchy for structured animation.

View Manual >
draw animation - free form deformation
FFD (Free Form Deformation)
By combing FFD, Transformation and Opacity Levels, you can fine-tune parametric values to create precise dynamic behaviors.

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Import Artwork with Auto Character Rig

Rig any imaginable 2D character design with the Free Bone Tool, or utilize Template Bones and the 360 Head Template, for biped human, and quadruped animals. Simply replace the image layers in the Template with your own design, to automatically setup the character rig. Then combine any of CTA's professional motion libraries, with the powerful facial expression editor and the IK/FK system to create vivid character animations.

draw animation - 2d character design - any character
draw animation - 2d character design from a psd template

From Layout to Final Production

draw animation - psd editing from layout to final production

A two-way process that evolves sketch concepts and storyboards, to final production. Start with storyboard sketches and bring them to CTA for animation. Keep updating the artwork while keeping the animation intact.

Fast Way to Build Up Asset Library

draw animation - fast way to build up asset library

Use any PSD Tool to alter a style, or add accessories to an animated character while keeping its original animation settings. Additionally, all character motion and expression settings can be exported to PSD for further customization. It’s a very efficient way to add cloth, hair, and assets to rigged CTA characters.

draw animation - drawing tablet

Optimized for Drawing Tablet

Cartoon Animator is optimized for the drawing tablets from the world’s leading drawing tablet brands like XP-PEN & Wacom.

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