Having installed the best hybrid animation software, you can combine 2D and 3D styles in one frame. You will create animations that convey the emotion of your story. It allows adhering to the inherent timing and keeping the entire workflow behind the scenes. This technique will help diversify motion pictures and add realism to your movies.
To combine 2D and 3D animation, you need tools and techniques such as toon shading, frame rate mixing, 3D rendering, object motion tracking, 2D strokes on a 3D overlay. I have collected the 7 most popular hybrid animation software. They include tools for working with 2D and 3D animation. Moreover, it is convenient to use them, and you can test the software for free.
With Adobe After Effects, you can combine 2D animation and raw video footage in real-time and create multiple 3D layers on top of each other. Another useful feature for creating hybrid animation is a camera tracker. It automatically tracks camera movement. Moreover, you can apply this option to all layers you work with, both in 2D and 3D.
This powerful 3D animation software has keyframes, expressions and presets to make your works eye-catching. You can also control the lighting and shadows of objects for a more realistic look. The puppet tool is another useful option when working with hybrid animation. Thanks to it, you can position a mesh-like structure on a 2D object and animate it.
Maya Software has a toolset that will help you combine 2D and 3D elements in one animation. You can animate objects using keyframes, control keys, motion capture animation, etc. Besides, it is frequently used as an alternative to free architectural design software.
Besides, this 3D modeling software brings together 3D-rendering and shading tools so you can view scene changes in real-time, quickly shade complex frames and effectively manipulate color. This hybrid animation software includes Remesh and Retopology options for modeling. You can use these functions for a clean, quad-based topology.
Cinema 4D is another popular photo animation software, which can also be used for creating hybrid animations. This 3D-design software offers many options for both beginners and professionals. Thanks to the collected features, you will quickly convert your animation into 3D.
With this Minecraft animation maker, you will create environmental UVs and graphic outlines to transform the design of the modeling as well as create nodal materials. This software has a camera tracker. It integrates with Adobe After Effects and Adobe Illustrator. This unity animation software also supports DWG files. That is an important feature for creating animations.
Toon Boom presents 2 programs (Harmony and Storyboard Pro) to help you create hybrid animation. Harmony is a cartoon making software that allows you to create animated characters in 2D, import a 3D model and render 3D in full quality. Moreover, you can place 2D heroes in full 3D space.
Toon Boom is the best storyboard software for those who are interested in creating and working with storyboards in 3D space. You can mix 2D and 3D in 3D space, put layers and 3D models anywhere, animate layers and add movement using a 3D camera. Its export options include Photoshop layered panels, PDF storyboards, stills and movies.
SketchUp has a rendering toolset to help you enhance your 3D model. Besides, you can create 3D models from 2D sketches in PDF format to use in your hybrid animation projects. For complex shapes modeling, you can download extensions. For example, you may need to model a specific curve out of a solid cube. Thanks to extensions, you can do it in seconds.
This hybrid animation and motion graphics software helps in the creation of all kinds of projects, including video games, assembling furniture, interior design, 3D printing, etc. You can work with DWG and PDF files, as well as export images and visualizations. A fast learning curve is another strong point of this software.
EbSynth is an efficient Adobe Animation free alternative. Using it, you can create a hand-drawn style over 3D rendering. You need to add video footage or 3D rendering and at least one still keyframe for reference. EbSynth will automatically transfer the keyframe style to the remaining frames, retaining texture, contrast and details.
This free 2D animation software does not work with 3D data, so it cannot accurately stylize parts of objects if they are not displayed in the keyframe or are completely absent. You can use masks to specify which parts of the video frame should be styled. For example, you can change only a character, whereas the background will remain untouched.
VideoFX Pro will help you create hybrid animation in less than 1 minute. To do this, you need to add content and select the area you want to animate. You can add text or a button, animate the picture with effects and post to social networks.
This is one of the best compositing software for beginners that provides simple online tools. It comes in handy for promoting on Facebook or Instagram. There are no advanced features here, but it has attractive special effects for creating hybrid animations.
