Animation Desk vs Mixamo
Animation Desk
kdan.comMixamo
mixamo.comSide by side
| Figure | Animation Desk | Mixamo |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $2.49/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 6 | 1 |
| Spec score · Animation Software | 9.1 (#10) | 8.0 (#54) |
| Founded | 2009 | 1982 |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Headquarters | Tainan City, Taiwan | San Jose, California, USA |
| Integrations | GetApp records iMovie as a user-mentioned integration, rated 5.0 from one integration review. | Adobe Fuse CC characters can be sent to Mixamo for fully automated rigging, with standard skeletons and facial blendshapes enabled by default. |
| Purpose | Animation Desk is software for creating animations, cartoons, and animatics. | Mixamo provides animated 3D characters, skeletal rigs, and animations for film, games, interactive experiences, and illustration. |
| Support | KDAN lists Animation Desk support for iPhone, iPad, Android, and Windows and gives [email protected] as a contact address. | Adobe does not support troubleshooting for third-party programs. |
Plans
Animation Desk
- Animation Desk Pro iOS$2.49 a month
- Creativity 365 for Individuals$4.99 a month
- Animation Desk iOS BasicFree
- Animation Desk iOS - Basic PlanFree
- Animation Desk Pro iOS$2.49 a month
- Creativity 365 for Individuals$4.99 a month
In their own words
Animation Desk
Animation Desk is software for creating animations, cartoons, and animatics on Android, iOS, and Windows. Its tools include paint brushes, layers, onion skinning, sound effects, and frame-rate settings. Work can begin with video clips, photos, or pre-built animation templates, with stock collections, batch frame pasting, and effects for video and images available for editing; some features depend on app version. The product is aimed at beginners, students, learners, and professional animators making rough animation, animatic sketches, or storyboards. Finished work can be exported as video, GIF, PDF, PSD, or image sequences, and editable projects can be exchanged among the Android, iOS, and Windows apps. The iOS listing also describes export to Photoshop for further editing. Animation Desk is free to download, and a free plan is listed. Animation Desk Pro for iOS is $2.49 a month, billed annually at $29.99. Creativity 365 for Individuals is $4.99 a month, billed annually at $59.99. KDAN says the product will remain available under existing paid plans but will not receive proactive new feature development or routine version maintenance updates.
Mixamo
Mixamo is a web service for preparing animated 3D characters for film, games, interactive experiences, and illustration. Its character library includes textured, rigged figures in realistic, cartoon, fantasy, and science-fiction styles, alongside thousands of full-body animations captured from motion actors. Users can preview animations on a character and adjust settings such as speed and arm spacing. For a custom model, automatic rigging fits a full human skeleton to an uploaded character; uploads can be FBX, OBJ, or ZIP. An already rigged model submitted for mapping must be an FBX with embedded texture media. The auto-rigger and animation library are for bipedal humanoids only. Mixamo retains only the most recently used character, not a history of earlier characters or animations. Characters and animations may be used royalty free in personal, commercial, and non-profit projects. The service is free and requires an Adobe ID, but not a Creative Cloud subscription. WebGL must be enabled in the browser.