We’ve been using Vyond (previously GoAnimate) without issue for a variety of animation projects, and I recommend it a lot. However, when it comes to making shots a bit more dynamic by turning characters around, GoAnimate doesn’t have that function, so I wanted to search around to see if anything met those needs any better. I found Animaker.
While they don’t have a character creator, Animaker is a really neat tool. Their free library is a bit small, but you can access the gist of their features. It’s similar to GoAnimate and I believe the learning curve isn’t very steep for beginners. The animations are cute, and some have more customizable color palettes. The characters and expressions aren’t as varied as Vyond, but the expressions they do have allow you to turn the characters to the side or for a ¾ shot.
I think Animaker is a neat tool that could become a great one if their library grows a bit more. They’ve also got a pretty enthusiastic staff and their website offers classes on their product. In the meantime, it’s likely that I’ll personally stick to Vyond for the bulk of my animations, but I think if an animation only required a single character or two that Animaker might be the more appropriate option.
