2D Animation - Spine or Anima2D?

Our little studio has been using Anima2D for character animation for the past month or so. While we like keeping our work within unity as well as the price, we have been finding a few things about Anima2D/Unity that interrupt our production -- whether it's an issue with the IK limbs not sticking right while animating via Unity's animation tool or just the Unity learning curve for artists.

We have been pondering whether we should take some time and money and give Spine a try or just tough it out with Anima2D/Unity but before we do, we were hoping to hear opinions from anyone that has worked with either product.

So, in your opinion: Spine or Anima2D and why?
Your thoughts are appreciated!

 

Hi SomeTallGy,

I am the developer of Anima2D. I understand the issues the current version has regarding the animation workflow. Fortunately next version will solve this problems by including those features and changes:

- IK will update always while using the Animation Window (IK will not record bone keyframes like before).

- IK have new toggles: "restoreDefaultPose" and "orientChild". RestoreDefaultPose will restore the binding pose before performing the calculations. OrientChild will rotate the child bone to the IK rotation.

- You can bake your animations by selecting "Window/Anima2D/Bake Animation" while your animation is shown in the Animation Window.

- You can create AvatarMasks by selecting "Window/Anima2D/Create Mask" while selecting an object with the Animator component.

- Onion Skin preview.

- Unity 5.4 beta compatible.



The new workflow will be more animators-friendly:

1- Animate IK and Controls.
2- Bake animation to bones. (Optional)
3- Disable/Remove IK (Recommended if animation is baked)

Send me your invoice number and I can give you access to the new version if you want to try.

Cheers

Edit: The new version is already available in the asset store.