Animation Software Ledger
^{Last Updated: March 17th, 2015}

This is a large collection of software you can use to animate on your computer. This list may not be complete or up to date, please see the last updated date above in case you're visiting this from the future and wish to know how fresh this information is. StickPage does not officially endorse any of the software listed, nor have we spent an extensive amount of time with each software. The links provided here were safe at the time they were added to the list, but please exercise caution while downloading software as the content of these links may have changed since they were added. Use at your own risk.

Feel free to suggest additional software in this thread or vouch for a specific software listed here. Do not discuss piracy or ask for help getting paid software for "free". This is explicitly against our rules. You have been warned.

Tags Legend

[WIN] - Windows Compatible
[OSX] - OS X Compatible
[NIX] - Linux Compatible
[STK] - Specifically Designed for Stickfigures

2D Animation

Free Software

Pivot Stickfigure Animator - [WIN][STK]
Website: Link Temporarily Removed
Download: Link Temporarily Removed
Notes: Pivot has had several iterations over the years, the most recent release by the original author (Peter Bone) is version 4. Pivot comes with additional software you probably don't want in the installer, please read the instructions carefully and opt out of any "offers" to avoid installing something you may not want on your computer. Links have been removed as the official website is believed to be malicious by Google Chrome. They will be replaced when this issue is resolved.

Stykz - [WIN][OSX][NIX][STK]
Website: http://www.stykz.net
Download: http://www.stykz.net/downloads/
Notes: This software is able to work with Pivot files, it was designed to compliment and expand Pivot's features.

Easytoon - [WIN]
Website: http://www.flat2d.com/easytoon/information.aspx
Download: http://www.flat2d.com/easytoon/Downloading.aspx
Notes: The website is in French, the software will be in English as long as you download the EN zip file.

TISFAT - [WIN][STK]
Download: http://portal2.sektorz.net/TISFAT

Pencil2D - [WIN][OSX][NIX]
Website: http://www.pencil2d.org/
Download: http://www.pencil2d.org/pencil2d/#download

AJAX Animator - [WIN][OSX][NIX]
Website: http://antimatter15.com/wp/ajax-animator/
Application: http://antimatter15.com/ajaxanimator/wave/
Notes: AJAX Animator is a browser-based animation software and requires no download.

Tupi - [WIN][OSX][NIX]
Website: http://www.maefloresta.com/portal/about
Download: http://www.maefloresta.com/portal/downloads

Paid Software

Macromedia Flash Professional 8 - [WIN][OSX]
Website: http://www.adobe.com/support/documentation/en/flash/fl8/releasenotes.html
Purchase: N/A
Free Trial: http://macromedia-flash-8.soft32.com/download/file/id/857955/?&no_download_manager=true
Notes: Adobe purchased Macromedia and Flash quite some time ago. This software is outdated and is no longer supported by Adobe or Macromedia, and is the last release under the Macromedia brand. It's also still widely used by animators in this community and so is listed here for their sake. The free trial and purchase links are through a third-party and not guaranteed to work or be virus free. Caution is strongly advised.

Adobe Flash Professional CC - [WIN][OSX]
Website: http://www.adobe.com/products/flash.html
Purchase: https://creative.adobe.com/plans?single_app=flash
Free Trial: https://creative.adobe.com/products/download/flash

Adobe After Effects CC - [WIN][OSX]
Website: http://www.adobe.com/products/aftereffects.html
Purchase: https://creative.adobe.com/plans?single_app=aftereffects
Free Trial: https://creative.adobe.com/products/download/aftereffects

Toon Boom Animate - [WIN][OSX]
Website: http://www.toonboom.com/
Purchase: http://www.toonboom.com/products/animate/choose-your-product
Free Trial: http://www.toonboom.com/products/animate/try
Notes: Toon Boom actually has a few software packages that include animation. You should choose the one that best suits your needs. Their complete software list can be found here.

Fuck go animate. XD

Also, please put up Pencil as well. That is if they want a more stable version of it. Pencil2D is so laggy.
btw, I'm using Pencil now. (Not Pencil2D) And it's great! (if you know how to avoid some bugs)
Link: http://web.archive.org/web/20100301120854/http://www.pencil-animation.org/index.php?id=Download

Edit: Put Synfig. Although I'm not recommend you guys to use it as a primary animation program. Because it's not a program that you can animate frame by frame. But you can use it for tweening.

No 3d?
Aseprite - Oriented towards pixel graphics. Pesky bugs, but works.
Pixen - Same as aseprite.
PAP - Emulates traditional animation. Currently on development of a new version which looks great. Kickstarter and all that fuzz. Old version available for free.
Retas! - I've read it's for anime styled animation. Never used it though.
Anime studio - takes some of the best of toon boom features and it's cheap.
CelAction 2D - Focused only on bone animation. If you have another software to produce graphics and like bone animation then you'll like this. Horrible for anyone else.
Autodesk SketchBook Pro - This is like photoshop, you can animate, however it's true purpose is drawing and painting. And it's awesome for that, but not so much for animation.
Photoshop - Same as above.
Synfig - heard mixed stuff about this one. Great lighting capabilities and image handling. Maybe I should try it. idk.

@Hidro
Blender because why not. It's a powerful program now.

And don't try Synfig. It's bad because of how laggy it is in Windows. (You'll get less lag in Linux though. But it's still so painful to use it. And like I said before, it's not a frame by frame animation program.

Edit: I don't think you should use drawing programs as animation programs. (*cough*Pencil*cough*) But if you guys just want to do it anyway, put GIMP here.

I'm still curating this list, it will be an ongoing project. I have yet to do any research on 3D programs, but feel free to make suggestions

There's TVpaint

You forgot pencil (released before pencil2D)
Flip boom / flip boom all star
Also, flash CS6 is a newer version of flash which is really similar to flash 8

Here's Pencil 0.4.4b (Before Pencil2D): http://sourceforge.net/projects/pencil-planner/files/Pencil/0.4.4beta/

The 0.4 version is actually more stable that 0.5 version. It's safe to use. You only get to see it crushed after you save the project (It has a few layers) and while you focus on a vector layer, you drag the timeline and go forward and backward multiple times. (The vector layer seems like it has a small problem. It's too hard to know when this kind of crush will happen)

So yeah, reposted this link so you guys can go directly to the download page.

I'm going to make a totally big risky bump to link this software that I have not actually tried out yet due to the sheer business of my schedule(like damn busy):v

It's called Giotto, it's basically a clone of flash except it's not actually flash, or owned by adobe, and doesn't have all that programming muck shoved into it.
It does however have ActionScript 1 and 2 still available. I'm still planning to test it out but my schedule QQ...
http://vectorian.com/giotto/

Is Anime Studio Pro 9 a viable option for RHG fights? I do not know if it can download FLA's, but it looks like a good program.

Quote from Haru

Is Anime Studio Pro 9 a viable option for RHG fights? I do not know if it can download FLA's, but it looks like a good program.

You can use any animation programs for creating animations of any kind. (If it's collabs Anime Studio is very unlikely to be aloud/used)

It won't be able to use Fla. files as that is Flash Files Only.

Pardon the bump, but I didn't see Twigmax Animator listed on the front page.