When comparing GAF Converter vs DragonBones Pro, the Slant community recommends DragonBones Pro for most people. In the question“What are the best 2D animation tools for game development?” DragonBones Pro is ranked 4th while GAF Converter is ranked 18th. The most important reason people chose DragonBones Pro is:
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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Pros
Pro Supports 99% of what can be created in Flash
Artists and animators don’t need any special planning or preparations of their SWF files before converting.
Pro Allows 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.
Pro Supports different frameworks
Full playback API supported in Unity3d, Cocos2d-x, Cocos2d, Starling.
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.
Pro Switch sprites
Can easily switch sprites in between the animations like switching clothes and other multiple behaviors.
Pro Completely programmable animations
Watching and moving can be programed depending upon certain events.
Pro Animation speed changing, bone scaling, switching postures
Size as well as animation speed can be easily changed during an animation.
Pro Multiresolution with texture scale
Can easily export to different texture sizes to target multiple resolution platforms.
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.
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.
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.
Pro Flash Pro extension, WYSWYG
There is an extension available for Adobe Flash users, which gives a WYSWYG design window inside of flash.
Pro Open source
Cons
Con Sound support only in Premium version
GAF Converter supports sound but only in the Premium version.
Con Almost no documentation
Con Not developed anymore
Publisher/ Developer dropped support for the software and left it in the dark. Use Spine instead.
Con Deceptive pricing
It's not "free" if you can't save, and tutorials cost money.