Efficient 2D Animation Software?

jack hunter asks: "I just found out about MOHO, a software that minimizes frame-by-frame tweening in 2D animation via the usage of a 3D concept --- bones (among other things). Believe it or not, prior to this, I thought Macradobe Flash was the only affordable animation software, and I was prepared to do frame-by-frame grit-work for my budget-wise animations. Anyway, I've learned my lesson: there are more powerful pieces software out there, and there are those who know of them. What do you use to animate? If you use Flash, do you use any add-ons/components or special techniques to make things more efficient?"

LiveMotion

[stubear]

It's difficult to get a copy these days but if you can you won't be disappointed. Adobe buying Macromedia is, IMHO, one of the best things that could have happened to Macromedia and their software. Flash will improve by the merging of LiveMotion. LM is like AfterEffects for .swf files and is a much better tool for animators because it animates property attributes seperate from one another where as Flash animates object properties all at once when you set a keyframe.

What to use? Use moho!

[UNIX_Meister]

I've been using moho for a couple of years now. The features can't be beat:

- runs on linux
- scriptable with lua
- great forum
- particles
- bones (inverse kinematics) as you noticed
- batch rendering
- 2.5d (move camera and 2d objects around in 3d space)
- import 3d objects

It's a great program, I use it every day for animation, for creating DVD menus, for creating swf files, just about everything.

Ktoon

[CandyMan]

Designed for animators, by animators [toonka.com].

Re:2D animation software

[axolotl_farmer]

South Park [southparkstudios.com] is done completely in Maya. According to the Wikipedia article [wikipedia.org], it was likened to building a sandcastle with a bulldozer.