The Best 2D Animation Apps for iOS Devices

If you want to create 2D animations using IOS devices… it is possible!

As a user of the iPhone and iPad, you can find a range of 2D Animation Apps for iOS available on the market.

And today, we are going to talk about 8 of those apps.

We are going to start from simple and beginner-friendly ones and we will build our way up till we cover advanced apps that professionals use to do their freelance work or create quick animation projects.

■8- Stick Nodes – Animator

Stick Nodes is an animation app that was developed for games. The app allows you to easily create stick-figure animations with automatic frame-tweening. 

It has some features for adding sound effects in addition to the virtual camera and zooming options. Overall it is a very good stickman animator.

■7- SketchBook Motion

You probably know Sketchbook Pro which is a drawing app compatible with iOS devices. The app is very similar to the best drawing software out there such as Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. therefore, it is quite easy to get started using it.

But there is also SketchBook Motion for creating animations on the Ios devices. You can use it to create beautiful animated scenes, communicate simply complex concepts, or just have fun! With SketchBook Motion, you can add effects or subtle movement to your still illustrations. This will help you make elements move, multiply, and grow. If you combine these easy effects you will be able to create beautifully animated 2d artwork.

With this beautiful 2D Animation Apps for iOS, you just need to Apply simple gestures to add animation or subtle effects. you can Import images from your device or draw them using your finger or Apple Pencil.

SketchBook Motion is fully-unlocked for SketchBook subscribers.

■6- Animation Kit

Animation Kit is a nice creative app for creating animation videos. It has a set of tools that will make your creativity flow in. It allows you to use drawings, sketches, images, and photos for creating animations and adding to them shapes and texts. 

This is a 2D Animation Apps for iOS that gives you the possibility of creating the first three animations for free but then you will have to switch to the paid version.

It is easy to use with up to 30 frames maximum and it has a timeline at the bottom of the interface to track your process.

 The app has pre-designed templates and scenes such as towns, forests, oceans, etc.

Animation Kit app is equipped with color palettes and multiple import options. it supports the character moving and animating in different parts of the body. And It also has the feature of tweening for each of the positions, the size, and transparency. 

The app has a wide range of pre-made graphics, characters, and backgrounds. It is equipped with exporting options where you are able to share your animation as MP4 videos or you can save them on your device gallery. 

■5- Callipeg

This is a very interesting 2D Animation Apps for iOS that supports hand-drawing and Apple Pencil. Even though it is new it has a ton of features that can help you create animations efficiently.

For example, you Create shots using the frame rate you need like 12, 24, 25 and it goes as far as allowing you to create 30 or 60 frames per second…

This as a pose to the other professional animation apps this one is dedicated to animation and has a manageable timeline, within a simple and decluttered interface designed for gestures and Apple Pencil.

To be able to work faster you can use your hard. For example, you can flip Flip your animation with three fingers, Play and Pause your animation with four fingers.

Also, You can also Display your floating palette with two fingers and access easily: copy, paste, clear and flip options

Also, it is possible to select and move your drawings around even through layers and Add as many layers as you need.

In addition to that one of the important features this app has is the ability to set the color and opacity of onion skin

■4- Procreate

This is a very popular 2D Animation Apps for iOS and it is used by many creative professionals because it has everything you need to create sketches, paintings, illustrations and what a lot of people don’t know about Procreate is that it can be used to create beautiful animations as well.

What makes it stand out is that it comes with an entire library of brushes with everything from pencils, inks, charcoals, to artistic brushes that lay beautiful textures. 

Procreate offers a frame-by-frame timeline, allowing you to play and pause your animation while working on the canvas. 

and Frames can now be reordered directly through the timeline. And you can also set foreground and background layers.

When you create a quick animation you can play it as a loop to be able to look at it longer in motion. And you can also play it back and forth real quick using the ping pong playing effect.

Also one of the powerful animation features in the app is Onion skinning which allows you to see animation layers. In addition to that there is also color-coding on the onion skin because the previous frame becomes faint to allow you to work fast without being confused.

■3- Clip Studio

This app is very popular for drawing, painting, comics, and even animation. It is used a lot and can be used professionally as well. 

Even though it is commonly used for drawing and painting it can be used to create animations on IOS devices.

If you want to create an animation using this 2D Animation Apps for iOS you can do this using vector layers with your favorite pen and brush tools, then resize and edit without losing line quality for the perfect finish. It can be ideal for whatever you create, whether short gifs or high-definition animations as well. for example, clip studio was used in the making of Mecha Ude anime. 

Using this app you can easily rearrange or adjust the speed of animation cels in the timeline palette. Its interface is also simple to understand whether you are a beginner or someone who uses animation software and apps a lot.

You can also create a scene by combining frame-by-frame animation with camera effects, for zooms and angle tilts to movement on a smooth curve. 

You can also turn on the camera view to check the movement of the camera as you animate.

You can create whatever you want, whether it’s short animations and gifs for sharing on social media, or high-definition professional animations on Clip Studio Paint EX.

■2- Animation Desk

Animation desk is a very popular animation app for Ios devices that allows you to create frame-by-frame animation videos and cartoons. The app interface is very intuitive with nice features and options. You can start using the app with no previous animation skills.

You can do drawing from scratch within the app as well as adding multiple layers up to nine layers for better animating. The app allows you also to add your own materials such as images, videos, or even Photoshop layers.

Animation desk app has powerful tools like brushes in a variety of types; it has more than 45 types of brushes. You also have painting tools and color gradients. Moreover, the app has an onion-skinning feature. In addition to that, it has other tools like pencils that are adjustable in terms of size, opacity, etc.

Animation Desk is an amazing app you should definitely try it.

■1- FlipaClip

FlipaClip a great 2D Animation Apps for iOS that lets you create fantastic flipbook-style animations. One of the reasons why it is very popular is the fact that it is an all-around app that provides you with different tools for drawing, animation timeline, onion skinning in addition to grid tools, and frames manager. 

The array of different colors available on FlipaClip allows you to give life to vibrant animations! It also allows you to import audio to create more unique and creative animations.

FlipaClip is one of the best 2D Animation Apps for iOS but it has some limits for example when trying to access some features when using the free and basic form of the app. and to be able to use more features you can upgrade to the paid version.