Effekseer vs Keyframe.it

Effekseer is a free, open-source tool for creating particle effects for games and movies. It exports effects as 2D animations or 3D effects, with runtimes available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, iOS, Android, and Emscripten. Included runtimes support DirectX, OpenGL, Unity, UnrealEngine4, and Cocos2d-x; separate downloads also provide plugins or libraries for GodotEngine, RPGMakerMZ, WebGL, DXLibrary, and other listed integrations. Programmer libraries support DirectX 9/11/12, OpenGL, Metal, and Vulkan. The listed available version is 1.80.7. Version 1.80 adds collision settings, UV repetition for tracks and ribbons, movement-aligned rotation, additional spawning options, external-model emission sources, and directional billboarding. It supports direct loading of gltf, glb, obj, geo, and bgeo models. GPU particle simulation and CPU/GPU profiling are preview features that may not be available in all environments. The tool and runtime use the MIT license; texture and effect data use CC-0. Playing effects in a game requires separate runtime or library packages.

Keyframe.it Studio offers four browser-based game-art tools: a 2D skeletal animation editor, pixel-art character tools, 3D model creation, and image-to-pixel-art conversion. The 2D editor rigs layered character art with bones and weighted meshes, animates it on a timeline, and exports Spine bundles, sprite sheets, GIFs, or video. The editor reads and writes Spine format and supports Spine runtimes 3.8 and 4.2, plus PixiJS v7 and v8 through their respective runtimes. Sprite Puppeteer can auto-rig a sprite, load sheets in up to eight directions, play-test characters, and export for Godot, Unity, GameMaker, or Spine. MeshForge creates textured 3D models from photos or prompts, then supports browser rigging, animation, and sprite-sheet rendering. Generation uses the user's fal.ai API key and costs about $0.10 per model; rigging, exports, and sprite packs are free. PixelForge converts drawings, photos, renders, GIFs, and sprite sheets into pixel art. The tools are free, require no account, and save projects in the current browser.