10 Best Animation Apps to use in the Classroom and at home

Picture animation is one of the most exciting advances in education technology, allowing children the opportunity to be endlessly creative in designing their comic strips, movies and more. Whether it’s using stop-motion animation to create amazing stories or simply a pen and paper, animation is a fantastic way to liven up the classroom and is guaranteed to be a big hit with young and older children alike.

Animation app encourages users to create animations and cartoons on Android or iOS device. Animation app allows you to create anything from simple to more complex animation using photos, videos, images, frames, scripts, timelines and audio. You can make a cartoon or an animation out of any topic, from creating your animated version of a Shakespeare play to a virtual model of ionic and covalent chemical bonding!

With a range of great animation apps available, you just need to download and install the animation app on your Android, iPhone, or iPad devices, which will spark the imagination and create perfect animations always. For anyone looking to learn how to animate these apps should be gracing the devices of any animator from beginner to experienced professional. Even non-animators will find you will find online tools, premium and free apps for animating.

Looking for an animation app? Check the list of best animation apps for Android and iOS devices.

(iPhone, iPad)

Animation Kit is an easy to use animation app for creating exciting animation sequences using drawings, photos, shapes and text. This animation app has ready-made templates such as school, beach, forest, town, Summer and an ocean floor. The application is free but has some restrictions on the additional templates. 

This app encompasses all the traditional tools you would expect from a high-quality drawing animation app such as paint palette, shapes, combine video and photos, add music, scale, rotate, colour adjustment and so much more. You can make beautiful animations on your iPad in just a few steps.

Using the timeline at the bottom of the screen the user can adjust the frame to the starting and finishing positions and move the shape to animate it. The animation feature is so easy to use and even the youngest of users can soon master the animation in little time, unsupported by parents and teachers.  What we love about Animation Kit is the simplicity and ease at which a complex animation can be created in a short space of time making it one of the best animation app. This app is available only on the App Store for iPad.

Price: Free (With In-App purchasing options)

Download Animation Kit

(Android, iPhone, iPad)

Toontastic is a 3D animation video making app for Android and iOS users used in thousands of schools around the world that enables kids to draw, animate, and share their cartoons. A fantastic digital storytelling tool that empowers kids to organize ideas, transforming them into entertaining animated cartoons.

It's visually appealing, has great in-app support and sharing features, and relies on self-created animation and narration to tell stories. Toontastic provides a stunningly easy way by how it makes the complicated process of creating an animated short movie so simple making it one of the best animation app. 

While Toontastic was not specifically designed for schools, we have heard from a lot of educators over the years that they love how this animation app sparks their students’ imaginations and uses the Story Arc to help frame their writing. Students use the app for creating everything from book reports to news broadcasts and foreign language skills. This app is compatible with iPhone, iPad and Android platforms.

Price: Free 

Download Toontasic

(iPhone, iPad)

Tellagami is a free animation app for students to learn by creating. Teachers and students can use Tellagami to create book reports, solve math problems and recite lessons. The possibilities are endless! 

Tellagami is an animation app that lets kids create their animated characters that speak typed or recorded audio. Kids can also choose your character's skin tone, mood, placement and lots of other options. Tellagami might help them explain a concept or tell a story in a new way. Kids can learn to use an animated character to speak text that tells a story, gives a presentation, or delivers another important message. Kids can place a custom character on a custom background and use this imagined space as the setting for a class presentation, a digital postcard, or another spoken message up to 30 seconds long. 

Tellagami Edu is a paid version of the Tellagami app loaded with features that allow classrooms to use the app without in-app purchases. The biggest learning potential for Tellagami might be for students who struggle with social skills.

Price: Free (With In-App purchasing options)

Download Tellagami

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(iPhone, iPad)

Animoto is one of the best animation apps for iPad and one of the easy slideshow maker that allows you to create beautiful videos set to music in minutes. It allows you to create a video sharing a story that educates, inspires, entertains, or engages your audience.

Animoto lets you quickly and easily combine text, images, and videos into beautiful videos. Students learn how to create video slideshows by organizing multimedia into creative digital storytelling. This free animation app offers over 50 different video styles, hundreds of songs in a built-in music library and the ability to share via popular social media platforms.

You can upload photos or video clips from your computer or import them from various other sites like Facebook, Instagram or Dropbox to make a beautiful video or animation from photos or videos. Animoto also has a selection of stock photos and video clips that you can browse to add some extra visuals to your video.

Make eye-catching school promotional videos with ease. Quickly create video newsletters, fundraise and recruit with private school marketing videos, and add technology to the classroom with our video maker for teachers, administrators, and students. 

Price: Free (With In-App purchasing options)

Download Animoto

(Android, iPhone, iPad)

FlipaClip is an animation maker app that replicates and improves upon traditional flipbook-style animation. FlipaClip is one of the best free animation apps that helps you create cartoon animations.

Combining simple yet interesting drawing tools with frame control, it enables the production of impressive animations. With a creative tool such as FlipaClip, there are two broad areas where it may be useful in the classroom: art lessons covering animation and other subject lessons using a creative means by which to show and record knowledge. The app also comes with several drawing tools such as brush, eraser and so on. This free animation app gives you the chance of creating your very own video with the use of sketching and imaginations. FlipaClip helps you to make animations on your iPhone easily.

Price: Free (With In-App purchasing options)

Download FlipaClip

(iPhone, iPad)

Puppet Pals HD is an easy to use cartoon creator app that allows you to create your animations using a variety of themes and characters. Puppet Pals HD allows you to create an endless array of animations and can be used in most lessons. The app can help to develop children's imagination skills as well as teaching them how to sequence, explore narrative, character, plot, voice projection, expression and unleash their creative skills. The only real limitation is the users' imagination. 

It is a free animation apps for kids who can learn about digital storytelling using Puppet Pals HD. It is a fun, creative way to help kids learn thematic storytelling.

Price: Free (With In-App purchasing options)

Download Puppet Pals

(Android, iPhone, iPad)

Animation Desk is a good animation app that lets you draw and animate at the same time. This app allows you to easily create animations, draw cartoons, or do some sketching. Its main features include a friendly and gorgeous user interface with realistic scenes for your animation creating. Animation Desk makes it simple for you to import your videos or photos to create animations and spice them up in so many ways. 

With this app, you can create and blend many levels of animation in one scene. It also has a variety of painting tools with pressure sensitivity and includes pencil, crayon, fountain pen, brushes and eraser. It also has over a hundred vivid colors for you to choose from to give your creations life and it lets you adjust the size and opacity of your brushes.

Animation Desk is available for Android and iOS but this app is a perfect choice if you like to create animations by drawing on your iPad using the Apple Pencil. You can download it for free through the Google Play Store or the iTunes App Store. Animation Desk is one of the best tools for animators. Now, creating an animation on your iPad or iPhone is easy with this animation creator app.

Price: Free (With In-App purchasing options)

Download Animation Desk

(Android, iPhone, iPad)

PicsArt Animator is an easy-to-use animation creator and cartoon maker app. PicsArt’s Animated GIF & Video Animator app offers a powerful but simple way to make striking animations. 

This animation app lets you create cartoon videos, animated GIF, and funny doodles with only a few steps with no skills required. It has a rich library of animation features like duplicate frames, layers, and it’s fully equipped with drawing tools, animated stickers, Emoji features, and many more. These tools come for free, too.

With the PicsArt Animator app, you can draw on your photos and animate your selfies. On top of that, you can use multiple layers of complex animations on your cartons and even control its animation length and speed.

PicsArt Animator is free to download through the Google Play Store or the iTunes App Store.

Price: Free (With In-App purchasing options)

Download PicsArt Animator

(Android, iPhone, iPad)

With Stop Motion Studio, you can create professional animations in no time, using their nice and simple interface. This app uses a storyboard interface for animation creation, which shows all of the frames in sequence. With this animation app, its easier to create video animations and GIFs. 

Perhaps one of the coolest features of this free animation app is the retroscoping effect which lets you import your own video clips and then draw over them! The app has advanced features like the full HD quality output, green light, themes, titles, and other editing tools. You can even use a remote cam to take your shots and is supported through in-app purchases. This app has basic video editing tools such as cut, delete, copy, paste, and other modes such as overlay, grid, frame-in-frame, and many more.

This app is available through the Google Play Store or the iTunes App Store. 

Price: Free (With In-App purchasing options)

Download Stop Motion Studio

(Android, iPhone, iPad)

Stick Nodes is a popular stickman animation maker app for Android and iOS users. The Stick Nodes app allows users to animate stick figures and really bring them to life.

You'll be creating your own animated .gif and make use of the many creative tools and features.  Users are given all kinds of segment shapes which means you can get real creative and unique with your figures. You can easily add sound effects using sound effect apps to the frames of your animations, make animated videos.

Price: Free

Download Stick Nodes Animator

Animation apps come in all shapes and sizes. When you're selecting one, you need to figure out what your goals are and what level of animation proficiency you're trying to reach. Once you do, the rest falls into place. Hopefully this article helps you with narrowing down your selection and finding that one special animation app that works for you.

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