Pencil2D is a free and open-source 2D animation software for

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and

Unix-like A Unix-like (sometimes referred to as UN*X or *nix) operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, although not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. A Unix-li ...

operating systems. It is released under the

GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general ...

and uses the

Qt framework Qt (pronounced "cute") is cross-platform software for creating graphical user interfaces as well as cross-platform applications that run on various software and hardware platforms such as Linux, Windows, macOS, Android or embedded systems wit ...

. It is used for making cartoons using traditional techniques (tracing drawings,

onion skinning Onion skinning, in 2D computer graphics, is a technique used in creating animated cartoons and editing movies to see several frames at once. This way, the animator or editor can make decisions on how to create or change an image based on the pr ...

etc), managing

vector Vector most often refers to: *Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction *Vector (epidemiology), an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism Vector may also refer to: Mathematic ...

and

bitmap In computing, a bitmap is a mapping from some domain (for example, a range of integers) to bits. It is also called a bit array or bitmap index. As a noun, the term "bitmap" is very often used to refer to a particular bitmapping application: t ...

drawings. It allows saving the animations in its own native file format, as well exporting it as a sequence of images in PNG, JPEG, BMP or

TIFF Tag Image File Format, abbreviated TIFF or TIF, is an image file format for storing raster graphics images, popular among graphic artists, the publishing industry, and photographers. TIFF is widely supported by scanning, faxing, word process ...

format, and also in a video file in AVI, MP4,

WebM WebM is an audiovisual media file format. It is primarily intended to offer a royalty-free alternative to use in the HTML5 video and the HTML5 audio elements. It has a sister project, WebP, for images. The development of the format is sponsored ...

, GIF or

APNG Animated Portable Network Graphics (APNG) is a file format which extends the Portable Network Graphics (PNG) specification to permit animated images that work similarly to animated GIF files, while supporting 24-bit images and 8-bit transparen ...

format.

History

The original version of the software was called Pencil, created by Patrick Corrieri and Pascal Naidon in 2005, but was abandoned and discontinued in 2009. The abandonment of the project led to the creation of numerous

fork In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from la, furca 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tine (structural), tines with which one ...

s, several of which were eventually merged into that of Matthew Chang, resulting in the project now known as Pencil2D. The project then continues on the pencil2D.org site. From spring 2019, changes are made to the organization of updates, with the deletion of the CR, and the implementation of regular updates whose version numbers are even with patches, and more occasionally, odd versions adding features. The goal is to quickly fix bugs as soon as they appear, rather than letting them accumulate, and to offer stability fixes more quickly. It started with version 0.6.4, released in May 2019. The developers are also setting up a project upload page in order to establish a library of tests for debugging and validity tests.

References

2D animation software Free software Cross-platform software Software that uses Qt Free and open-source software

External links

* {{Animation software

History

See also

References

External links