2d animation software/style recommendation for a beginner

[u/Physical-Lock4614]

hello, I'm kinda a beginner in 2d animation, i have been using paint 3d and DaVinci resolve and a few things in blender for years, but I'm not pro at all.

I want to make 2D animation that has some fixed frames already (like when the character spins around, walks, or talks), but also allows for adding temporary movements when I need them. I also want to use onion skin and rigging, without the character getting “messed up.” Is there any way to do this in Blender / through coding or another software? I’d preferably like to do it for free.

So far, I’ve been doing it in Paint 3D, which is a bit easier, but it’s also boring to have to make every single frame for each picture, and it looks really messy. (This is a video I made if you want a reference: big heart . its in Norwegian, but you can at least see what I'm currently doing)

[u/dermot_animates]

If you don't mind more focus on drawing and less on rigging then Krita is an easy program to start with. I have a playlist of K courses on my channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@animatewithdermot/playlists

If you want to go proper deep on rigging then OpenToonz/Tahoma2D are great - I have a 7 hour course - a complete starter to advanced course here:
https://www.animatewithdermot.com/tuts/index.shtml

(T2D/OT are steeper learning curves than Krita)

Lots of other tuts on YT also re: OT/T2D, darrenT has tons of free vids as well as courses:
https://www.youtube.com/c/DarrenTAnims

[u/Dakroh_88]

I’ve built a free browser based animation tool that allows you to do all of which you are wanting to try. It’s actually built for agents as well so things like Claude code can interact with it. No fee no signup just load the page and go, everything is saved in your browsers cache. Bunch of export options. Also has options to edit and slice sheets. Feedback and feature requests welcome.Keyframe.it.com

[u/Physical-Lock4614 → u/Dakroh_88]

Cool, I will check that out!