01 — DRAW
Start with a feeling.
Sketch with vector tools or MyPaint raster brushes. Select, transform and clean up your marks right on the canvas.
Vector + raster drawing ↗Free & open-source 2D animation software
Draw freely.
Make it move.
A native workspace for the first sketch, the next frame,
and that little moment when it all comes to life.
macOS Apple Silicon & Linux previews GPL-3.0-or-later
A LITTLE PLAY, BEFORE THE DOWNLOADgive the timeline a little nudge
OPEN-TOONA little movementDemo sceneEXPERIMENTAL
0012 / 48BROWSER PREVIEW
Expose selected drawingHeld for 2 frames
LAYERS
Little spark
Your drawing
Reference
3 layers · 48 frames151015202530354045
| Frame | Little spark | Your drawing | Reference |
|---|
Normalized channelsDrag square keys.
Use presets for easing.
Use presets for easing.
Your canvas. Your timing. Open by design.
01 / FROM THE FIRST LINE
Less distance between
the idea and the frame.
Drawing, timing and motion belong together.
OPEN-TOON is building a workspace
that keeps them that way.
02 — TIME
Find your rhythm.
Build drawings into exposures. See the before and after with onion skin, then adjust the timing in Timeline or Xsheet.
ONE DRAWING, HELD FOR TWO FRAMES.
03 — MOVE
Give it personality.
Set poses on the canvas. Move, scale and rotate, then shape the in-betweens with editable visual motion curves.
Play with the curveThese are working subsets of an experimental editor. See what is supported, and what isn’t yet.
02 / IT’S ALL IN THE IN-BETWEENS
A tiny curve.
A different
character.
A float. A snap. A little overshoot.
Motion isn’t just where you go.
It’s how you get there.
OPEN-TOON’s integrated curve workspace lets you shape the timing of layer poses. Try the idea here: drag a handle and watch the feeling change.
Explore the animation workflowMOTION LABOne journey. Your timing.
cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.10, 0.25, 1.00)SMOOTH
Fine-tune the handles
An easing illustration, not a simulation of every native curve feature.
03 / BUILT IN THE OPEN
A work in progress.
A direction worth drawing.
01
EXPERIMENTAL TODAY
The first working frames.
Vector and raster drawing. Layers, exposures and onion skin. Canvas pose editing, motion curves and keyframe operations. Local revisions, recovery snapshots and PNG sequence export.
Read the implementation status02
PLANNED CHARACTER WORKFLOW
A character with more to say.
The “Harmony Moment” plan connects character parts and substitutions, animator controls, deformation, audio and lip sync into a reusable speaking-character shot. This is a target, not a delivered feature set.
Explore the character-shot plan03
STILL TO QUALIFY
The confidence to go further.
Cameras, compositing and broader media workflows remain on the roadmap. Production workloads, device coverage, accessibility and release qualification also need real evidence and artist testing.
See the phases and acceptance criteriaNo roadmap phase is marked complete. No release dates or production-readiness promises are implied.
OPEN SOURCE. OPEN INVITATION.
The next keyframe
could be yours.
A useful creative tool takes more than code.
It takes the people who draw, question, test and care.
FOR ANIMATORS & CURIOUS PEOPLE
Try. Notice. Tell us.
Explore a small scene. Share a reproducible issue, a workflow that gets in the way, or an expectation worth discussing.
FOR DEVELOPERSMake a small thing better.
C++20, Qt 6 and a Qt-free core. Read the contribution guide, pick a bounded problem and bring tests with the change.
FOR THE DETAIL-ORIENTEDMake the next step clearer.
Improve a requirement, clarify the documentation, or share a test scene that others can legally reproduce.
Small, thoughtful contributions count. Read CONTRIBUTING.md and AGENTS.md before changing scope.
04 / EVERY ANIMATION STARTS SOMEWHERE
Meet your next
work in progress.
Download the experimental desktop preview.
Bring your curiosity. Keep a backup.
macOS
macOS 15+ Apple Silicon (arm64)
Ad-hoc signed. Not notarized.
Linux
x86_64 AppImage, built on Ubuntu 24.04
Make the AppImage executable before opening.
This is an experimental preview, not a supported 1.0 release. Broad clean-machine and physical-device qualification are still incomplete. On macOS, review the download before using Privacy & Security → Open Anyway if Gatekeeper blocks it.
Looking for Windows? No packaged Windows download is listed for this preview. See the source-build documentation.
What is OPEN-TOON?
OPEN-TOON is a free, open-source desktop application for 2D drawing and animation. It brings direct canvas editing, vector and raster drawing, an integrated Timeline/Xsheet, and visual motion curves into a native workspace built with C++20 and Qt 6.
Is it ready for production work?
Not yet. OPEN-TOON is an experimental editor under active development, not a supported 1.0 release. Working subsets are available, but no roadmap phase has passed all of its exit criteria. Explore it with test projects, keep backups, and read the implementation status before relying on a workflow.
Which platforms can I try?
The documented experimental preview provides a macOS 15+ Apple Silicon ZIP and a Linux x86_64 AppImage built on Ubuntu 24.04. The macOS package is ad-hoc signed but not notarized. Broad device and clean-machine qualification remain incomplete. No packaged Windows download is listed for this preview; consult the source-build documentation.
Does the animation editor run in this browser?
No. OPEN-TOON is a native desktop application. The interactive canvas, timeline and curve controls on this website are lightweight workflow illustrations, not the application itself. Download the experimental preview or build the desktop app from source to explore the actual editor.
Is OPEN-TOON free? What about my artwork?
The project’s original contributions are licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later. Dependencies keep their own licenses. Artwork created with the application remains the creator’s work; the application’s license does not automatically apply to your artwork. Any third-party assets you use still have their own terms.
What can I export today?
The current editor supports PNG sequence export, alongside local project revisions and recovery snapshots. Video output, audio workflows and the broader compositing pipeline are planned work, not features this page claims are available today.
Can I contribute without writing C++?
Yes. Reproducible workflow reports, requirement corrections, redistributable test scenes, documentation and reusable-library evaluations can all help. Describe the expected behavior, share evidence and limitations, and read CONTRIBUTING.md before starting. Only share artwork and material you have the right to redistribute.
Is this Toon Boom or OpenToonz?
No. OPEN-TOON is its own project. It is independent and not affiliated with Toon Boom Animation. Its documentation includes research into existing tools and reusable open-source components, but that does not make it the same application as Toon Boom Harmony or OpenToonz.