Good Animation Programs?

[GreatWyrmGold]

I've seen some tutorials for animating in Flash and similar programs, and it seems like something I could learn how to do if I had patience, persistence, and a program. I have the first, I can have the second if I have time, but my attempts to find the third have failed.

I'd like to have a program that is either free or requires a fairly small lump-sum investment and is worth it. It should be able to make animations without much prior knowledge or experience, in particular having a non-obtuse user interface. Finally, it shouldn't have any unneeded annoying "features".

Can anyone recommend a program that fits my needs?

[Sean Mirrsen]

I've seen some tutorials for animating in Flash and similar programs, and it seems like something I could learn how to do if I had patience, persistence, and a program. I have the first, I can have the second if I have time, but my attempts to find the third have failed.

I'd like to have a program that is either free or requires a fairly small lump-sum investment and is worth it. It should be able to make animations without much prior knowledge or experience, in particular having a non-obtuse user interface. Finally, it shouldn't have any unneeded annoying "features".

Can anyone recommend a program that fits my needs?

Oh hello GWG. How have you been?

I myself am looking for a good animation tool, and am frankly disappointed with available choices.

The most promising thing so far, that looms on the horizon, is the next release of Krita (http://krita.org/), planned for sometime in december, which promises animation support (among many, many other things) being added to this already awesome, easy-to-use, and free art tool.

Other than that, I'm afraid I have no good answers. I know both Photoshop and Corel Painter have good animation tools, but they are neither non-obtuse or cheap.

Mind, I have not checked around for vector animation tools, primarily because those are not in my interest. >_>

The one tool I have, that I wanted to use for the purpose, is DrawPile (http://drawpile.net/about/). It's a program mostly intended for collaborative drawing, and its drawing tools are basic, but it does have stylus pressure support, and the required features for making simple animations. I haven't used it much, however, but it's free so you can try it out. ^_^

[GreatWyrmGold]

Oh hello GWG. How have you been?
Eh, I've been better, but I've been worse. I'm on Reddit a lot—/r/RWBY and /r/Parahumans, mostly. I've gotten a bit of a negative reputation on the former for expressing unpopular ideas. At length. (Only on my own threads—I'm not an idiot—but it's enough.) How are things on Bay12?

And thanks for your advice. Krita looks interesting.