Callipeg vs Pencil2D

Callipeg is a 2D animation application for frame-by-frame and keyframe work on tablets and desktop computers. Its pixel-based hand-drawn tools include customizable brushes, dedicated erasers, freehand and geometric shapes, pixel and raster drawing, selection, and affine, perspective, and warp transformations. Keyframe features cover layer parenting, curve editing, tangents, and position, scale, rotation, and opacity controls. The application imports images, videos, image sequences, JSON, XDTS, audio, brushes, palettes, and PSD files. It exports images, sequences, videos, GIF, JSON, OCA, and XDTS files; OCA works with Blender, while XDTS works with CLIP STUDIO PAINT, Toei Digital Exposure Sheet, and OpenToonz. Files are stored locally, with optional platform-dependent cloud backups. It auto-saves every 30 seconds, supports up to 4K, and has no hard layer or sheet limit. Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, and Windows are listed. Prices are one-time purchases: $5 mini, $15 iPad, and $30 Studio.

Pencil2D is free, open-source software for creating hand-drawn 2D animations. It runs on Windows, macOS, Linux and, according to the homepage, FreeBSD. The project provides stable builds for Windows 7 or later, macOS 10.14 or later on Intel, and both 32-bit and 64-bit Linux. Artists can switch between raster and vector workflows for sketching, inking and painting. A timeline manages keyframes, while dockable tool and color windows accompany an unlimited canvas with a camera field. Onion skin displays drawings before and after the current keyframe, with controls for drawing count and transparency. Sound can be imported through a sound layer, although waveform display is still pending. Exports include MP4, WEBM, AVI, GIF, APNG and PNG image sequences. Video importing, text tools and shape tools are not implemented. Pencil2D is free for commercial use. Help is available through its forum, Discord, tutorials, FAQ and user manual.