Hello everyone, I have recently been thinking about making a blog entry about the software I use and about the best alternatives to Adobe CS, more than anything because it became very expensive since last decade. So, over time I have been testing and discovering some programs and I decided to make a blog entry about the best alternatives to some of them, selecting the best cheaper and free ones. Also, I just want to say that it’s just my personal opinion, but I hope this small list helps you in your artist’s journey.
Clip Studio Paint (One time payment)
I will begin with one of my favorites, because it is a program that makes drawing in a similar way to when you draw on paper. It’s a very powerful tool that has a lot of brushes, assets, and also a great community, with a lot of contests and extra stuff. I used to paint with Paint Tool Sai when I wanted to draw the way I do with pencils and paint, but it failed when you want to do something more complex, such as comics or add text and shapes, so I looked for an alternative not as expensive as Photoshop or as complicated as GIMP. And that’s when I discovered Clip Studio Paint; it was easy to learn and a great upgrade at the time for drawing, and also with a lot of similarities with SAI. It also has an animator timeline tool for frame-by-frame animation, tools for comics, and some useful filters for amazing effects, so if you use Photoshop for drawing, moving to Clip Studio Paint will be your best option.
This one isn’t free but its price is so affordable that you will not regret the money you invest in it. You can download a free trial at their website or also buy the PRO version for $50 USD and the EX version for $220 USD. The difference is that the EX version is more focused on animation features and exporting full comics. For just making single comic pages and digital illustration, or just a quick GIF animation (up to 24 frames), the PRO version will be enough. Also you can take advantage of Black Friday to buy it for half its price; that’s what I did at the time.
Affinity Designer and Photo (One time payment)
This has been a recent find and one of the best I’ve had. I discovered this software at the end of 2019, I tried the free month and I fell in love with it. It has three amazing software programs and extra tools, but for my work I fell in love with Affinity Designer (an alternative to Adobe Illustrator) and Affinity Photo (an alternative to Adobe Photoshop). They also have Affinity Publisher (an alternative to Adobe InDesign) that I know must be great, but it’s not my industry. As I said before, Affinity Designer is like Adobe Illustrator; it has amazing vector tools for doing great work. With Illustrator I usually get lost and feel uncomfortable when I need to draw, so when I switched to Affinity Designer I really fell in love with the intuitive menus and its way of working. Also, I remember when I drew for the first time in it with my drawing tablet that I felt this software was a lot smoother and better visually. Changing now to Affinity Photo, I have to say that it is pretty much the same as Adobe Photoshop. After 8 years using Photoshop, I thought that the learning curve would be difficult when I started using this software, but the truth has seemed even easier to learn and find all its tools. Like Affinity Designer, it has a great interface and I must admit that I did not miss anything from Adobe tools. Also it is a lot more affordable than Adobe; for only $50 USD each of their programs, you can have great software without having to pay the high monthly rates of Adobe. Also you can take advantage of Black Friday to buy this tool for half its price.
Blender (Open Source)
Now we are entering the free zone. And we’re going to start with one of the best, Blender. It began as just a 3D modeling tool, but since Blender 2.8 this software has started playing with 2D animation. I have to admit that it’s not the best alternative for 2D animation right now; it still lacks many tools to match other software such as Animate or After Effects, like drawing tools and symbols, but I think this will become the future for 2D and 3D animation because it can combine both and also is an Open Source software, and has a lot of tools and it’s always growing. If you are interested in testing this software, you can see my tutorial of how to animate a character in this program, so you can begin playing with it.
Open Toonz (Open Source)
2D Animation software Winner on this list. This software became famous a few years ago because it is what Studio Ghibli uses, and in 2016 it was given away so that anyone could use it for free. I’ve gone through a lot of tutorials and reviews, and I see that it has a lot of similarities to Toon Boom, except for the price, because Open Toonz is totally free. The learning curve is a little messy, but once you understand the main concept and its way of working, working with it begins to be easier. If I compare with Adobe Suite, I see that it has similar tools to Adobe Animate and After Effects, so it’s a good choice to leave these tools for good if you are just looking for a 2D animation software.
Kdenlive (Open Source)
I have tested many versions of free software for leaving Adobe Premiere for good. And after fighting with a lot of them I finally felt comfortable with KdenLive. It has the basics for making a good video composition, and also has a lot of extra features and plugins for advanced video editing that you can download from their page. A good choice to start migrating from Adobe Premiere. Perhaps somewhat different distribution, but it’s all a matter of watching a tutorial to adapt to its visual environment.
Handbrake (Open Source)
I don’t have much to say for this tool; it’s just a powerful tool similar to Media Encoder, and works for almost the same. It can convert files in any format without losing quality. It’s very useful for professional purposes. It really helps me in moments when you need to deliver an animation in another format and the software doesn’t offer that option, but in these times, it’s difficult having that issue. In any case, it’s really useful in those cases.
Audacity (Open Source)
Really not much difference between Audacity and Adobe Audition. Quite similar I would say… Well, different menus and keyboard shortcuts, so maybe you should look at the manual first, but just to get used to it, the software has very powerful tools and you can change the interface so it doesn’t look so outdated. Not much to say, I really use it for some audio modifications, so for more complicated stuff I really can’t comment so deeply.
Unity (Free and Paid Plans)
I have played recently with video game programming. As an illustrator and animator I have been looking for a game software that is more visual than coding, so that’s when I discovered Unity. At first sight it was a very different software from the ones I had used before, but after watching some online tutorials, I really felt comfortable using it. Maybe it’s complicated at the beginning, but after working with it some time, it starts to make sense and you discover that this software has great tools. The 2D Animation tool is really amazing in this software; you can work with bones and loops, so maybe it’s a good tool to start migrating from Adobe Animate, but not as simple to use because you have to combine timelines with animation and you suffer a lot at the beginning. I’m still not fully used to it, but for video games it’s great not having to use another software when making games, so I’m really happy with their animation tool. I’m really excited to know what new tools Unity will bring for 2D in the future.
