Pencil2D
Pencil2D is a free, open-source 2D animation software for creating traditional frame-by-frame animations. It provides an intuitive interface with onion-skinning, a timeline, layering system, drawing and painting tools, and support for exporting animations as image sequences or video files (MP4, AVI, WebM, APNG). The app is widely used by hobbyists, students, and independent animators who prefer a lightweight, no-cost alternative to commercial animation suites. Pencil2D runs on Windows, macOS and Linux.
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1 suggestionPencil2D is actively maintained and nightly builds are already available for Apple Silicon (native arm64), but these are pre-release builds not included in the official stable release channel. The current stable release (0.7.0, released October 2024) remains Intel-only and runs under Rosetta 2, but the developers explicitly state the intention to ship a native Universal Binary in a future release. If you want a native build today, you can download the latest macOS Apple Silicon nightly build from the Nightly Builds page at pencil2d.org/download/nightly/ — be aware these are development builds and may contain bugs. Otherwise, monitor the official Pencil2D releases page for a stable version that ships with native Apple Silicon support, which should arrive before the September 2028 deadline when Apple removes Rosetta 2. The fact that nightly builds already exist suggests the project is active and moving toward an official native release.
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