# Pencil2D Reviews **Vendor:** Pencil2D **Category:** [Animation Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/animation) **Average Rating:** 4.1/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 16 ## About Pencil2D Pencil2D is an animation/drawing software that allows you to create traditional hand-drawn animation using both bitmap and vector graphics. ## Pencil2D Reviews ### 1. Free to Use & Open Source 2D Animation Tool **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ridham S. | Business Owner, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 12, 2022 **What do you like best about Pencil2D?** - It is free to use and very easy to operate. - It is running on all operating systems. - No require higher graphic specification. - Easily draw any 2D element and animate it. - Drag and drop feature. **What do you dislike about Pencil2D?** - Their support is a little bit slow. - Outdated user interface. - Absence of pre-made templates. - It is not supporting 3D animation and drawing. - Not suitable for advanced animation creation. **Recommendations to others considering Pencil2D:** Ultimately, when it relates to freeware design and animation tools, Pencil 2D is ideal for novices and those seeking a simpler structure. Pencil 2D performs well with vector graphics and animation. It is available for all operating systems so you can work anywhere from any system. I highly recommend this software for basic 2D drawing and quicker animation works. **What problems is Pencil2D solving and how is that benefiting you?** - Helps me to create basic 2D drawings of my clients very quickly. - It is easy to use especially for 2D animation than other software. - Helps me to switch between raster and vector workflow very easily. ### 2. Comprehensive & Easy to Use 2D Animation Maker **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Preet C. | UI/UX Designer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 05, 2021 **What do you like best about Pencil2D?** The below things I like most in Pencil2D are: - It is completely free-to-use software for 2D animation. - Very lightweight software with a minimal and interactive user interface. - It runs on all operating systems like Windows, Linux, and Mac OS. **What do you dislike about Pencil2D?** The below things that I don't like much in Pencil2D are: - It is not supporting 3D animation. - It takes a lot of time to make 2D animation because I have to animate frame by frame. **Recommendations to others considering Pencil2D:** This software is very good and free to use. It helps me to create 2D animation videos for my clients and it increases my productivity as well. It also helps me to create digital sketches in Pencil2D. You should try it once if you are looking for free 2D animation video maker. **What problems is Pencil2D solving and how is that benefiting you?** The business problem solved by Pencil2D are as below: - It takes our headache of making 2D animation videos without spending a single penny on other software or tools. - It is very easy to use and I use Pencil2D for my freelance work. ### 3. easy to use drawing tool. **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Azezur R. | Trainee, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 14, 2020 **What do you like best about Pencil2D?** The ability to use it the way we desire to use it. It gives us the flexibility to create and draw what we want. **What do you dislike about Pencil2D?** The UI is a bit way to simple and not colorful enough in my perspective. **Recommendations to others considering Pencil2D:** None **What problems is Pencil2D solving and how is that benefiting you?** I draw my diagrams for my university projects using this. ### 4. 2D hand-drawn animations **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Design | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 02, 2020 **What do you like best about Pencil2D?** Very easy to use, free and open source, run on runs on Windows, macOS and Linux **What do you dislike about Pencil2D?** It’s very very difficult to achieve realistic color blending; Filesize can become very large!! **What problems is Pencil2D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Hand 2d drawing animation ### 5. Pencil Puisher Strikers Again ! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Theodore P. | Software Consultant/Training Technical Support, Customer Relations, Computer Software, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 31, 2019 **What do you like best about Pencil2D?** When I first looked at this software tool, well what is the different than the old Paint? However in my work I have to analyze and test, But as I went along I saw that it was much more, What I like best is that it is intuitive, easy to use and the has more stability in drawing objects. **What do you dislike about Pencil2D?** One thing I wanted to mention here When you want to bring in a picture, it will let you do some edits on it but it won't let you turn it rotate it around. However, though the support gave a workable solution by taking some snapshots of it and from there you make a copy then do what you want. **Recommendations to others considering Pencil2D:** This product is worth trying, just for the very fact its ease of use and intuitiveness, but it is also free. It does depend upon what your current needs are. We want to set things up for the client so that they can go in and do what they need to do in a short to reasonable amount of time without to much hassle. **What problems is Pencil2D solving and how is that benefiting you?** It gives a easy way to incorporate 2 D messages in various campaign message and also add some animation to the messages. ### 6. Beginning Animation Drawing Tool for Mac **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Arts and Crafts | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 18, 2019 **What do you like best about Pencil2D?** I like that it has a familiar interface to drawing apps, like Paintbrush.The toolbar has pencil, brush, fill, eraser, vector lines and five more. The colors are basic. There is layering by bitmap or vector. The top menu is file, edit, layer, help and windows. I will be looking for more detailed information about how to link the different cells to make the animation video. It is basic and easy to use. **What do you dislike about Pencil2D?** I miss not having the shapes tool, as I would be drawing on the app, rather than importing. The erase tool was not reliable, sometimes it will work and then it won't. Often, after using it, it will continue to erase any subsequent designs I want to create. I have to troubleshoot this to find out if I didn't disable erase or if I need to reinstall? **Recommendations to others considering Pencil2D:** Very easy interface. **What problems is Pencil2D solving and how is that benefiting you?** I would like to make short animations for my business showing either characters or products. This is easy enough to create with and I hope it will be quick and easy for mini animations for my products page on Facebook.. ### 7. Drawing animations for Mac **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Daniel S. | Software Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 31, 2019 **What do you like best about Pencil2D?** What I like the most is the Simple and easy to use, its interface is quite nice and it has the minimum tools necessary to make an animation. **What do you dislike about Pencil2D?** It has several Bugs, at times some of the tools stop working correctly, which forces the user to perform a restart of the application. **Recommendations to others considering Pencil2D:** Corrections should be made in the inconsistencies presented by the application and thus seek a better experience with the user. **What problems is Pencil2D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Make several animations with this application for a small development project that integrated products in motion. Start using it as a test and, after overcoming the short learning curve, start using it more frequently. ### 8. Best 2D Animation tool for Windows **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 31, 2019 **What do you like best about Pencil2D?** The UI interface is the best part of Pencil2D. It is so simple to use that even a new user can pick up this tool in a few hours. Also, the shortcuts make it more easy for the experienced user like me to work fast with the tool. **What do you dislike about Pencil2D?** The fact that I can't use it for drawing 3D graphics. Maybe its coded in C++ hence that's the reason the team is not able to make enhances but it would have been great if this tool comes with a 3D animation support as well. **What problems is Pencil2D solving and how is that benefiting you?** We used to draw widgets for e-commerce clients and there we used to use Pencil2D for customizing few widgets for the clients. Like if we were designing for Valentines Day or any other festive, we used to personalize the widgets with the help of Pencil2D ### 9. Fun software with classic dashboard look **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Adry S. | Design Lead, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 30, 2019 **What do you like best about Pencil2D?** it's so simple to use, i'm letting my kids to play with it. Imagine a Paint software from microsoft but add a camera/vector layer with timeline. it's a great and fun tool to educate someone about how animation works **What do you dislike about Pencil2D?** nothing so far, everything seems self explanatory. Although i dont understand the real purpose of this app. Maybe it's more functional when you're using a tablet and pen **Recommendations to others considering Pencil2D:** super easy and fun to use **What problems is Pencil2D solving and how is that benefiting you?** nothing yet other than education tool ### 10. Pencil2D - First-time user **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Warehousing | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 28, 2018 **What do you like best about Pencil2D?** I like how easy the installation was. You just unzip the folder and start using. I have never used this kind of software before and I was able to make a talking and moving character within about 10 minutes if use. **What do you dislike about Pencil2D?** It is very limited in what you can do out of the box. But I think it would be great to add animation if things were drawn out of the app. **What problems is Pencil2D solving and how is that benefiting you?** None. This is specifically for personal use and learning small forms of animation. ### 11. Flexible animator app **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Hasini D. | Information & Communication Technology Officer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 31, 2019 **What do you like best about Pencil2D?** It has the best brush tools and they are working perfectly. It is easy to use. **What do you dislike about Pencil2D?** Not special dislikes. Lack of tools are disadvantage, but it is great software rather than other. **Recommendations to others considering Pencil2D:** It is best for beginners. Try it for create fantastic animations. **What problems is Pencil2D solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am using it to create two dimensional animations. Once well known about the layout, it helps to create best animations without doubt. ### 12. great free program to get started with 3d **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** jemaica m. | Operations, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 31, 2019 **What do you like best about Pencil2D?** great price - free! so its good for people just getting started. Very easy to use and get started with animation. Nice to use the layers **What do you dislike about Pencil2D?** Its good for being free of course they could always update and add more **Recommendations to others considering Pencil2D:** Completely recommend for anyone looking to start animation, cant go wrong with free! **What problems is Pencil2D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Easy to get animations done and practice them. ### 13. Wonderful Design Tool at a Low Cost **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Utilities | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 31, 2019 **What do you like best about Pencil2D?** I like how I'm able to animate and feel comfortable doing so from a beginner skill level to advanced. **What do you dislike about Pencil2D?** I don't dislike anything in particular, the functionality is ahead of its game, and I'm quite fond of this product. **What problems is Pencil2D solving and how is that benefiting you?** No are no particular problems needing to be solved. The platform allows for ease of use and I find it to be extremely helpful when creating new graphics for an advancing workforce. I benefit from the platforms basic use. ### 14. Great for beginners, but you'll have to redo all of your setting preferences. **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sabrina B. | Freelance Graphic Designer, Real Estate, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 29, 2017 **What do you like best about Pencil2D?** Super simple to use, especially when you are just learning to use a drawing tablet. You can start from the bottom (i.e. character design) and work your way up to creating full-length animations. Pencil 2D allows you to set the pace for your animation with a "timeline" feature, so you can determine how fast or slow you want them to go. **What do you dislike about Pencil2D?** You'll have to redo your setting preferences because the program resets to default whenever you open it up. This is especially true for if you want to use the pen tool, or if you want to use different colours to connote different parts of your animation. You also have to be careful to make sure that each part of your animation is in a different layer, otherwise, you'd have a pile of drawings or sketches instead of an animated character or scene.In addition, the eraser tool isn't the best when it comes to erasing details in your animation; it leaves a lot of pieces of sketches behind. Moreover, there are not near enough tutorials for Pencil 2D so a lot of self-teaching is involved. Finally, you have to make sure you save to the correct file type with Pencil 2D, and the program will only allow you to export images of your animation rather than actual video files. You'll have to compose those images into an animation using a different program. **Recommendations to others considering Pencil2D:** Refer to animation tutorial vids on youtube and blogs about the product(there aren't a lot of Pencil 2D tutorial vids, unfortunately). **What problems is Pencil2D solving and how is that benefiting you?** I learned how to create fluid animations with Pencil2D software. As I've said before, Pencil 2D is a very simple program to use--there are very few tools you have to learn to use, and once you know where everything is, then you should have no trouble creating a decent animation. Pencil 2D is also the cheapest source for any beginning animators who want to learn the trade but don't have the money to buy expensive software programs. ### 15. Pencil2D **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Grey P. | analista de siniestros, Insurance, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 23, 2016 **What do you like best about Pencil2D?** Excellent, as it is a 2D animation software - free and open source available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. It is a fork of 'Pencil'. The application uses a bitmap/vector drawing interface to produce simple graphics and drawings in 2D, as well as animation. Pencil is written in C++ and is Qt-based. The application's license is the GNU General Public License. **What do you dislike about Pencil2D?** Everything is excellent in this application as it is compatible with all operating systems. **Recommendations to others considering Pencil2D:** Recommended 100% for the general public and people who want an efficient app. **What problems is Pencil2D solving and how is that benefiting you?** many benefits as it is excellent and everything works perfectly ### 16. I Can't Wait for Updates! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sara C. | Sketch Artist, Animation, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 30, 2016 **What do you like best about Pencil2D?** Obviously one of the things I like most about this program is that it is free. I also enjoy how easy it is to understand this right off the bat. I was able to start animating immediately! Another extreme plus is the ability to use layers. Without this feature I would definitely not be able to happily use this product. **What do you dislike about Pencil2D?** I definitely wish there were more updates to this program because I enjoy using it so much. For example it needs much more importing and exporting options. As a dedicated user, I would pay extra to have a much more detailed program to use, especially on a mac where 2D animation software is a bit harder to find. **Recommendations to others considering Pencil2D:** I highly recommend this to artists of all ages and interests. Not only is it free, but it is so simple to use as well. Another draw to it is that if you don't have your animation desk and punched paper handy, Pencil 2D will allow you to easily animate your ideas. So many times I have turned to it to get an idea out and had fun doing it! **What problems is Pencil2D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Coloring keyframes is not as easy as the screenshots make it look. I tend to do pencil tests with this program then export the frames to render in another one i.e. Photoshop. Another thing is more brushes! What I would give to have a more photoshop-like palette and selection. ## Pencil2D Discussions - [2+55=](https://www.g2.com/discussions/49754-2-55) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [View Pencil2D pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/pencil2d/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-13+10%3A25%3A40+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=af6b6a68-08f3-463e-9d4d-717319458728&secure%5Btoken%5D=5c403c3b0d0d32f9901430484f77a2eb182c3a02bf8bd46afed71d9d7db39eaa&format=llm_user) ## Pencil2D Features **Generative AI** - AI Image-to-Text - AI Text-to-3D **Agentic AI - Animation** - Multi-step Planning - Cross-system Integration ## Top Pencil2D Alternatives - [Blender](https://www.g2.com/products/blender/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (305 reviews) - [Adobe Animate](https://www.g2.com/products/adobe-animate/reviews) - 4.0/5.0 (145 reviews) - [Animaker](https://www.g2.com/products/animaker/reviews) - 4.7/5.0 (1,023 reviews)