With the onslaught and rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus many artists, students, schools, and businesses are rethinking the way they work. Add to this many of the licenses that are available to students and artists at their schools and work are unavailable to them outside of these facilities. Many software companies are offering free for a limited time softwares and artists are also making use of already free software solutions to solve not just the work and school issues but also to develop art at home during the pandemic. Here’s a list of pro softwares who’s manufacturers are giving out temporary home licenses and pro level free softwares that are used by many professionals around the world.
ADOBE – Creative Cloud (Student Access): ADOBE is helping students crushed by the closure of their schools campuses by offering a free home license until MAY 31, 2020. LINK
ALCHEMY – (Always Free): An experimental drawing software for creating rough sketches and concept art. LINK
ANIMATORDV – (Free Stop Motion Software): The award winning AnimatorDV Software has both a paid version and a free version. You the paid version is called AnimatorHD while the free version is still titled AnimatorDV. This software is loaded with many professional functions. Only available for Windows. LINK
AUTODESK – (MAYA, 3DS MAX, and a lot more): AUTODESK has for years offered free licenses to students and institutions so to better learn their softwares and hep build community enrichment. They are committed to supporting students and institutions during the crisis. LINK
AVID – (Composure Ultimate, ProTools, ProTools Ultimate, and Sibelius Ultimate): AVID is offering a free 90 day home license to current companies and institutions for their employees and students to use. LINK
BLENDER (Always Free): BLENDER for years has been a secret weapon in the CGI world for low budget productions that cannot afford the high end licenses of competing CGI softwares. The software is absolutely free for any project and available for instant download. LINK
CELACTION – (Free per project completion): Celaction is offering a 30 to 90 day free license to assist studios and students in finishing their projects from home. These licenses are limited per project request with the company. LINK
DAVINCHI RESOLVE (Free Editing/VFX/Audio Software): Blackmagic Designs for years have been producing one of the film industries secret weapons called DaVinci Resolve. This software not only is a powerful editing software, but is also has an amazing VFX compositing software built in called FUSION and also has a powerful audio studio included. Best part is that it is free. LINK
GIMP – (Always Free): GIMP is considered the free alternative to Adobe Photoshop. Though it doesn’t offer everything that Photoshop does it is still an extremely powerful software for animators and artists. LINK
HELIUM FROG (Free Stop Motion Software): Helium Frog is a free stop motion software for use with Windows Computers. LINK
INKSCAPE – (Always Free): Inkscape is a scalable vector graphics studio. It’s always free and gives artist powerful tools to create beautiful works of art. LINK
KRITA – (Always Free): Krita is an open source digital painting tool that is available for free to anyone everywhere. LINK
LMMS (Free Music Software): Looking for a software to build and score you animations with then LMMS may be a good choice for you. Free to everyone. LINK
STOP MOTION STUDIO (Android and iOS App – FREE): This stop motion software is free for your phone or tablet. Android: LINK / iOS: LINK
TOON BOOM – (Harmony, Storyboarder Pro): Toon Boom is making their award winning software available for free for 30 days for current existing clients to work from home. LINK
MONKEY JAM – (Free Stop Motion Software): A little out of date but still a fun tool to use when dusting off those old computers. Monkey Jam is a great software for pencil tests and stop motion experimentation. LINK
PENCIL2D – (Always Free): Software for creating 2D hand drawn animations. https://www.pencil2d.org
SCULPTRIS (Free Sculpting Software): Sculptris is a software owned by Pixologic the creators of Zbrush. Though the software is a no longer in development and a little out of date it is still compatible with many computers and makes a great tool for creating 3D sculpts that can be later 3D printed or incorporated into a CGI project. LINK
