Adobe Character Animator vs Spine
Adobe Character Animator
adobe.com
Spine
esotericsoftware.comSide by side
| Figure | Adobe Character Animator | Spine |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $70.83/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 9 | 8 |
| Spec score · 2D Character Animation Software | 9.2 (#3) | 8.1 (#17) |
| Spec score · Animation Software | 9.1 (#8) | 8.6 (#23) |
| Spec score · Cartoon Maker Software | 9.1 (#3) | 8.0 (#17) |
| Character rigging | Yes | Yes |
| Export formats | Exports include H.264 video, Adobe Media Encoder output, PNG sequences and WAV audio. | JSON,binary,GIF,PNG,JPEG,AVI,QuickTime video,texture atlas |
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Supported platforms | Windows,macOS | Windows,macOS,Linux |
| 2D animation tools | Yes | Yes |
Plans
Adobe Character Animator
- Character Animator StarterPrice not published
- Character Animator StarterPriced on request
- Creative Cloud Pro for students and teachersPriced on request
- Creative Cloud Pro for students and teachersPrice not published
- Creative Cloud Pro for teamsPrice not published
- Creative Cloud Pro for teamsPriced on request
- StarterFree
- Creative Cloud Pro annual billed monthly$34.99 a month
- Creative Cloud Pro$69.99 a month
Spine
- Essential$99 a month
- Professional$449 a month
- Enterprise$2,499 a year
- Education — 10 computers$850 a year
- Education — 25 computers$1,700 a year
- Education — 50 computers$2,900 a year
- Essential$69, paid once
- Professional$379, paid once
In their own words
Adobe Character Animator
Adobe Character Animator has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
Spine
Spine is a 2D animation tool focused on making animations for games, with an editor and runtimes for using the results in games. It builds skeletal or cutout animation by attaching images to bones and animating those bones. Rigging and animation tools include inverse kinematics, paths, skins, meshes, free-form deformation, weights, a dopesheet, a graph editor, and runtime preview. Exports include JSON and binary animation data, animated GIFs, PNG or JPEG image sequences, AVI or QuickTime video, and texture atlases or spritesheets. Official runtimes support Unity, Unreal Engine, Godot, iOS, Android, Flutter, Phaser, PixiJS, and libgdx; generic runtimes are also listed for C, C++, C#, Haxe, and TypeScript. Spine runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Its free trial includes Professional features but cannot save projects, pack textures, or export animation data, images, or video. Essential is listed at $99 a month; Professional is $449 a month.