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2D Toolkit
All
9
Experiences
Pros
8
Cons
1
Top
Pro
Good documentation
The documentation for the toolkit is well written and there are video tutorials as well as an active community.
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Con
Doesn't integrate with Unity's Sprite system
2D Toolkit provides a completely proprietary sprite implementation. Though it can be used alongside Unity's 2D systems, the two are completely separate and require different code to utilize.
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Pro
Includes source code
No need to pay more to get access to the source code.
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Pro
Pixel-perfect camera
Pixel games in the style of 8 or 16 bit systems need to have each pixel uniform on the screen which 2D Toolkit supports with a camera component.
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Pro
Add colliders in the atlas editor
Choose from either a box, sphere, or mesh collider that will output as either a 3D or 2D collider in Unity.
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Pro
Create different resolutions of atlas
2D Toolkit allows for different sizes of atlas from 1x, 2x, or 4x which can be changed depending on platform resolution.
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Pro
Built to work inside Unity
2D Toolkit is an editor extension so users don’t have to leave the Unity engine for tile mapping.
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Pro
Create Atlases within the tool
Create sprite sheets for tiles to save draw calls and to keep tilesets organized.
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Pro
Supports the Tiled TMX Format
Create tilemaps in Tiled and implement with 2D Toolkit.
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Experiences
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29
7
Puppet2D
All
4
Experiences
Pros
3
Cons
1
Top
Pro
Mesh Deformation
Instead of having to change sprites to bend legs or other joints mesh deformation changes the mesh shape based on joint weights to bend and move.
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Con
Forced editor scaling causes problems
Puppet2D adjust the scaling of bones in the editor for display purposes, which results in unintended behavior if other objects use a bone as a parent.
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Pro
Inverse Kinematic bones
Bones will move and rotate reacting to the position of the rest of the skeleton. The animator does not have to animate each part of a joint but rather have it follow realistically. Also can be used for ragdoll effects based on physics.
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Pro
Built on top of Unity’s animation system
Mecanim and state machines work natively since Puppet2D builds on top of Unity’s built in animation system.
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7
2
Spine
All
10
Experiences
Pros
6
Cons
4
Top
Pro
Integration libraries support most engines
Spine provides integrated modules for 14 major engines including GameMaker Studio, Cocos2Dx, LOVE, MonoGame, Unity, XNA, Flash, HTML 5, libgdx, Corona, and more. Generic runtime libraries are also available for C, C++, Objective C, C#, JavaScript, Lua and ActionScript 3. Dozens of third party libraries support additional targets.
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Con
Spine Professional is expensive
Spine Essential includes nearly all features, except IK, weights, and meshes. Spine Professional is expensive, though it does give all future updates for life (Spine is updated very often).
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Pro
Simplified UI allows for an easy learning curve
No-nonsense workflow allows you to create your artwork in programs much better suited for the task like Illustrator and Inkscape for example, while Spine itself focuses only on the important task of skeletal animation.
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Con
Requires EVERY developer to have a license
Ever developer needs a license, not just the animator, or an overall license for the project. The license agreement is extremely restrictive.
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Pro
Allows for easy use of artwork from third party programs
Spine's developers provide scripts which makes exporting artwork from third party programs much easier to do.
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Con
Doesn't support gamemaker 2.3
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Pro
Community-driven feature roadmap
Esoteric Software maintains public Waffle issue trackers to help plan and prioritize feature additions.
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Con
No integration for lesser known engines
Spine does not directly support some game engines, such as Construct 2 or Clickteam Fusion.
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Pro
Funded via Kickstarter
Spine received resounding support from Kickstarter backers, beating its pledge goal by over 5 times. A second successful Kickstarter added meshes and other important features.
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Pro
Price high for this product
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Experiences
$69 / $299
227
41
Anima2D
All
5
Experiences
Pros
3
Cons
2
Top
Con
No longer supported by Unity.
This has been merged into the 2D Animation package.
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Pro
Purchased by unity
Everything you could want from a skeletal animation system, free and because purchased by unity promises to be native in future.
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Con
Uses the Unity hierarchy
It's impossible to rename your asset after making your animation, otherwise you lose dependencies.
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Pro
Free
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Pro
Spring bones
Much like spring joints native to unity, you can set bones to have dynamic spring animations based on their parents.
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68
22
Creature
All
3
Experiences
Pros
3
Top
Pro
Automated animation
One of Creature's strengths is its ability to assign motors on bones which will generate animations based on parameters set on the motors.
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Pro
Unity runtime always up to date
Among various game engine supported, Unity is the most up to date runtime including the most recent features, many samples, integrating well in the Unity editor.
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Pro
Easy to use
Creature has a simple workflow structured into 3 steps: Meshing, Rig and Animate.
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65
23
Unity 2D
All
7
Experiences
Pros
4
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
Built into Unity 4.3+
2D game creation was a major feature request from the Unity community and was added with version 4.3. 2D is provided in both the Pro and Free distribution of Unity.
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Con
Lacks critical features
Vertices can't be animated, so you can't have ANY organic feel (like... lungs breathing). Parent bone can't be animated without affecting the children. This is especially impeding for organic feel, again. No option to show & unshow assets (or it is hidden), like for switching weapon on your character for exemple.
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Pro
Integrates with Mecanim
Mecanim brings state machines and blending to 2D bone animation. The state machine editor allows for designers and programmers to visually create a Finite State Machine (FSM) to control when animations should play. Mecanim also allows for blending so an animation can transition smoothly between two states without the need of in between frames made by an animator.
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Con
Poor script interface for texture atlases
Accessing individual sprites within an atlas texture is possible at runtime, but requires use of the Resources folder subsystem.
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Pro
Sprite Sheet and Bone based animation supported
Both types of 2D animation for game development are supported in Unity’s system and can be used interchangeably in the timeline.
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Pro
Easily change sprites dynamically
Usually used for character customization, programmers can change any sprite in a bone animation at runtime easily by referencing the bone and loading the new sprite from the resources folder.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac
Languages:
C#
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Experiences
Free+
660
172
Mango Animate Character Maker
All
3
Experiences
Pros
3
Top
Pro
Infinite customization
Self-import images, self-upload body part layers, customizable facial features and expressions; You can also make custom motions and save to ‘my library’.
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Pro
Easy to use
Free characters, premade templates, easy bone tools...
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Top
Pro
Cheap
Only $139 for a Lifetime Pro license of Mango Animate CM (time-limited).
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$139/Lifetime
10
0
GAF:Flash to Unity
All
9
Experiences
Pros
7
Cons
2
Top
Pro
Can convert 99% of what can be done in Flash
GAF supports such Flash features as: Masks support; Filters support; No limitations on timeline; Conversion of shape tweens; Frame labels.
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Con
Sound support available only in Premium version
GAF Converter supports sound but only in the Premium version.
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Pro
No need to use large Sprite Sheets
With GAF converter you get a highly optimized texture atlas and a config file. You don't need to take trouble over cumbersome sprite sheets. You can easily modify an already working in Unity animation and play around with the animations parts whenever you need.
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Con
Doesn't support sounds
GAF does not support importing audio along with Flash animations.
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Pro
Alows using Flash animations in Unity
You can convert Flash animations directly in Unity with the help of plug-in. The converted .gaf file consists of a texturte atlas and a binary config.
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Pro
Supports different frameworks
Full playback API supported in Unity3d, Cocos2d-x, Cocos2d, Starling.
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Pro
Light, fast, and optimised
GAF is lightweight and fast in a project.
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Pro
Uses dynamic text
GAF can use dynamic text in animation on some platforms.
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Pro
Can customize sprite animation
GAF can swap a sprite with another.
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Experiences
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7
0
Moho 12
All
6
Experiences
Pros
4
Cons
2
Top
Con
Too expensive
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Pro
Cheaper than Toon Boom and Adobe Products
Cheaper than Toon Boom and Adobe Products. People often complain about the price hike, but the pro version does go on sale, and even the full priced version is less than other insdurty standards on the market.
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Top
Con
Limited support for game engines
In most cases you'll have to export and edit sprite sheets. This will consume memory. Also, FBX file support is limited and not all features will run in Unity. Aside from Unity, there is no support for runtimes for video game engines. Also, many animation features such as vector integrated features will not export to Unity. Spriter, Spine, and Dragon Bones would be better options.
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Pro
Good community support
Lots of online forums, Facebook groups, YouTube videos, etc.
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Pro
It's better than any 2D animation software on the market for vector based animations
It beats Adobe Flash and Toon Boom at vector based animation. It has more features for 2D vector animations with it's integration with 3D mesh and bone rigs. Smart bone rigs create better animtions with less distortions then Toon Boom, and there are no bone rig animation options with Adobe Flash.
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Pro
Easy to use interface
Quicker to animate and use than other similar products.
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$399
20
2
Blender
All
25
Experiences
Pros
16
Cons
8
Specs
Top
Pro
Free and open source
Blender is licensed under the GPL. Some Blender modules such as the Cycles rendering engine are licensed under the Apache 2.0 license.
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Top
Con
Too many possibilities, no unified workflow
The operations are not optimized enough for specific tasks.
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Pro
Wide import and export format support
Support lots of modern 3D formats including DAE and FBX - ideal for game developers.
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Top
Con
The physics engine is a bit lagging behind, especially the destruction physics
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Pro
Has a powerful rendering engine
Blender runs the Cycles path tracing engine under the hood. Cycles is a very powerful rendering engine capable of full path tracing (light fall off, caustics, volumetrics). It is mostly compatible with OpenCL and CUDA rendering, and is implementing mycropolygon displacement features. The upcoming release has a viewport engine called EEVEE whereby you can see and interact with your work in render mode in real time!
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Con
Difficult learning curve
Blender has a history of being unintuitive, but the 2.8 overhaul made the program far easier for beginners to pick up, and changes continue to be made to further improve the experience. However, there is still a learning curve.
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Pro
Python extensibility
Blender embeds Python 3, which can be used to write add-ons, tools, extend the interface, rig characters and automate tasks.
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Con
Not good for Industrial Design because it uses average vertex normals
You can not create a hard surface with a radius continuity degree along a surface using a specific radius value.
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Pro
Powerful animation suite
Blender provides a full rigging system, and automates animation by interpolating between keyframe positions.
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Con
Vertex normal issues on edges after boolean operations.
After creating a simple boolean operation the vertex normals are broken. A lot of work to fix the issue and you loos surface continuity.
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Pro
Supports both low-poly and hi-poly modeling
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Con
Bad vertex normal after boolean operations
Does not handle well polygon intersections. And need tweaking by hand points or adding average vertex normals via modifiers.
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Pro
Regular release schedule
Releases are made every ~3 months.
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Con
Does not handle NURBs
Is not capable of real hard surface for industrial design because is not able to reproduce surface continuity degree as a NURBs does and average vertex normal destroy surface radius.
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Pro
Sculpting and 3D painting features
Although Blender's 3d painting and sculpting tools (mostly painting) are not at par with specialized software like Substance Painter, ZBrush, or Mari, it is more than capable of getting most jobs done if the user takes the time to learn and understand it.
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Con
Poor particle system
The Blender particle system can at times be a little limiting and finicky (and buggy) to get working. Even if it can get most straight forward jobs done, it is far from the most advanced system, and could benefit largely from advancements.
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Pro
Includes video editing & compositing tools
Blender's node-based compositor has comprehensive video sequencing and post-processing features.
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Pro
Node based modeling support
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Pro
Keyboard shortcuts
Good keyboard shortcuts for everything. Keep your left hand on the keyboard and your right hand on the mouse.
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Pro
Very useful for a freelancer
It offers a round solution (it covers many areas and professional fields) for a freelancer, for free, constantly updated, very polished, and allowing high quality results that clients do require. After some learning, it becomes very useful for professional work.
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Pro
Has a large community
There's a huge community to help you get started immediately.
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Pro
Coherent and streamlined workflow / internal use logic
The trick with Blender is to get used to its usage philosophy, as it keeps consistent through all the application. Once you get it, every feature or addition is learnt naturally, almost effortlessly.
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Pro
Very versatile
You don't have to switch between software when you want to do different things. Because modeling, sculpting, composting, video editing etc can all be done in blender.
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Pro
Generative geometry using nodes
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac, FreeBSD
Technology:
C, Python
3D:
Yes
2D:
Yes (as of 2.8)
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Experiences
Free
663
95
ex2D
All
3
Experiences
Pros
3
Top
Pro
Fantastic font editor
The atlas font editor that comes with ex2D is fantastic and makes it very easy to manage and modify the fonts in your project. Key features: Support fonts export from BMfont and Hiero. Multiple fonts can be put together in one big texture atlas to save draw calls. Fonts can also be put together with other texture sprite to save draw calls. Manage fonts easily in the atlas editor.
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Pro
Includes a very useful clipping system
Quickly clip sprite, text and other sprite type in a rectangle
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Pro
Best in class sprite animation editor
The UX for editing sprite animations with ex2D is simply better then any of the alternative frameworks. You can: Scale and scroll enabled time line editor. Move, add, remove and insert Frame Element by dragging and dropping them directly. Adjustable single frame length to make animation creating more versatile. Support adding animation events directly in the timeline editor. Preview animation result in the editor. enter image description here
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3
1
DragonBones Pro
All
13
Experiences
Pros
10
Cons
3
Top
Con
Almost no documentation
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Pro
Animation weight
This is a very useful feature because you can make a walk animation that you can simply change the animation weight to see the character start running, because it will increase the scale of the movement of the bones in the animation. This will increase the hand and the leg swing as you increase the animation weight and the character, making it appear as though it is running.
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Con
Not developed anymore
Publisher/ Developer dropped support for the software and left it in the dark. Use Spine instead.
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Pro
Switch sprites
Can easily switch sprites in between the animations like switching clothes and other multiple behaviors.
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Con
Deceptive pricing
It's not "free" if you can't save, and tutorials cost money.
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Pro
Completely programmable animations
Watching and moving can be programed depending upon certain events.
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Pro
Animation speed changing, bone scaling, switching postures
Size as well as animation speed can be easily changed during an animation.
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Pro
Multiresolution with texture scale
Can easily export to different texture sizes to target multiple resolution platforms.
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Pro
Color transform, changeable Z-Order
Can easily change the Z-Order of a sprite during an animation and can also change the color mask on a sprite, in between an animation.
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Pro
Animation reuse/clone
Create once and use the same animation for different characters just by simply cloning the same animation for the new characters.
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Pro
Nesting skeleton, timeline tween
You can nest skeletons and change the timeline of the animation in between the animations in order to make some cool effects.
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Pro
Flash Pro extension, WYSWYG
There is an extension available for Adobe Flash users, which gives a WYSWYG design window inside of flash.
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Pro
Open source
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Experiences
Free
113
30
Marionette Studio
All
7
Experiences
Pros
5
Cons
2
Top
Con
It's not free
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Pro
Actively maintained
Marionette Studio team is actively involved in the development of this software. There is a changelog available and a public Trello board.
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Con
No integration for major game development engines
There is no integration with major game engines such as Unity, Construct 2D, Unreal, Cocos 2dx, etc.
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Pro
Cloud based solution
Projects and files can be stored in cloud and the is no need for creating backups.
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Pro
Animation export
Animations can be exported as image packs and using some 3rd party tools can be imported and used in Unity.
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Pro
Easy to use
Can be used by anyone - intuitive interface and short learning curve.
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Pro
Web-based software
Easy to be accessed as no software needs to be download or installed on your computer.
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Experiences
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7
3
Demina
All
4
Experiences
Pros
2
Cons
2
Top
Con
No longer under development
The most recent update to Denima occurred in October 2012.
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Pro
Straightforward tutorials
Denima's user interface is very simple, and the primary documentation is a simple walk-through of the workflow.
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Con
XNA-specific
Denima's runtime library is intended to integrate with the XNA framework, which has been unsupported since April 2014.
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Pro
Open source
Demina is a C#/XNA application hosted on CodePlex under the Microsoft Public License.
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1
Built By the Slant team
Find the best product instantly.
4.7 star rating
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