There’s something magical about animation. It brings static objects to life, imbuing them with character and personality. Once the preserve of pros with high-end gear, animation is now within reach of anyone with an iPhone and the right apps.
Our selection covers apps for animating drawings, photos, and physical objects. Each one is user-friendly, but keep in mind that animation requires time and patience. So you won’t become the next Disney overnight, but you’ll have a lot of fun trying!
PicsArt Animator (free)
This one’s a great starter app for getting into animation. Load a photo or start with a blank or textured canvas, and you can then sketch away with a range of tools. Adding and arranging frames is simple, and an onion skinning system helps guide you by showing previous frames faintly.
That alone would be solid for a freebie, but PicsArt Animator goes further. Notably, there’s a great layers system that lets you animate elements independently, for example to loop a three-frame sea and a more complex animated boat bobbing on its surface.
There are a few drawbacks – no audio, no specific frame rate controls, and issues with lengthy projects. But as a free, accessible way to get started with animation, it’s hard to beat.
Motionleap (free + IAP)
Many apps let you animate on top of photos, but Motionleap lets you animate the photos themselves. The main tool involves defining areas you want to move and then drawing arrows to direct how you’d like the elements within to flow. This works best with skies and water, for example to make previously static clouds billow across a scene. But with care, you can make a spiral staircase shot from above spin endlessly.
The app has many other tools, including animated overlays, fake skies, sparkle and smoke effects, and a dazzling fragment explosion that makes the subject look as if they’ve had a run-in with Thanos.
Just be mindful to avoid the obnoxious, aggressive subscription nags and you’ll have a blast with this one.
Stop Motion Studio Pro ($6/£6)
Keen to animate real-world objects? This app lets you shoot frame-by-frame animations of 2D card cutouts, plasticine, Lego figures, and more, either from your desk or pre-existing photos. It can even convert video into a string of stills.
With the basics in place, you can arrange frames, import audio (including pausing frames until sounds finish), add titles and credits, and scribble over footage – which the app’s creator ambitiously calls rotoscoping.
What’s great is how the app balances usability and power. It’s beginner-friendly yet deep enough for serious work. For the money, it’s a bargain – and there’s even a free version if you want to try before you buy.
Download Stop Motion Studio Pro
Looom ($10/£10)
This Apple Design Award winner rethinks animating from the ground up. Its idiosyncratic interface feels almost like playing an instrument. One hand draws while the other works with dial-like contraptions to cycle frames. It’s odd at first; but once everything clicks, Looom is fast and intuitive.
However, the app is also deeply opinionated. You’re limited to eight layers, each with a single color. That forces you to think differently about how you plan and build animations compared to more traditional tools.
Still, this animation sketchpad has soul and art. It might not be suited for finished work, but its experimental approach could help you unlock creativity by forcing you to work in new ways.
RoughAnimator ($8/£8)
Other apps on this list can be used for professional work, but this one was built for it. The interface feels busy on the iPhone screen, but that’s because it’s packed with features that jobbing designers demand, such as unlimited layers, custom brushes, audio sync, and fine control over frame timing.
Because of all this, RoughAnimator demands more time and effort than anything else in this round-up. And it really could have done with including example projects to ease the learning curve. But if you’re beyond dabbling and spend quality time with the app, you’ll learn to appreciate its depth, versatility, and value as you craft your own frame-by-frame shorts – using nothing but your iPhone.
Procreate Dreams ($20/£20)
This iPad-only app comes from the makers of Procreate, the go-to digital painting tool for Apple devices. With Dreams, the goal was to rethink animation for touchscreens with the same level of elegance and smarts.
You get Procreate’s superb brushes and can animate frame-by-frame using a traditional flipbook, like several other apps in this roundup. But you can also automate animation using keyframes and transitions – or animate ‘live’ by dragging items with a finger.
If you’re used to Procreate’s immediacy, Dreams might overwhelm at first. And pros may spot gaps in the feature set. But with time – and a peek at the online handbook – this app reveals itself as a powerful, capable tool, and all for a lowish one-time purchase.