Friction is a powerful, lightweight and cross-platform open-source 2D animation package, similar to Adobe Animate or After Effects. Friction is a fork of the now abandoned ENVE project(learn more) that is rapidly approaching the 1.0 milestone release. It has come a long way since being forked from ENVE and is showing a heck of a lot of promise.
Key features of Friction include:
High-Performance Engine: Built in C++ using the Skia Graphics Library (the same engine powering Google Chrome and Android) for lightning-fast GPU-accelerated 2D rendering.
Effortless Shape Morphing: A unique “Dissolve Node” system that allows for smooth interpolation between vector paths, even if they have a different number of nodes.
Interactive Transform Gizmos: Direct on-canvas handles for Position, Rotation, Scale, and Shear (New in 1.0 RC3).
Advanced Snapping System: Precision alignment that allows objects to snap to the Canvas, Grid, Nodes, Pivots, or Bounding Boxes.
Cross-Platform Native Builds: Lightweight performance on Windows, Linux, and macOS (now supporting Apple Silicon Universal Binaries).
JavaScript Expressions: Full support for ECMAScript (JS) to automate parameters, create “wiggle” effects, or link complex object behaviors.
Integrated Code Editor: A built-in editor for power users featuring syntax highlighting, autocompletion, and custom function definitions.
Nested Scenes & Timelines: The ability to work on multiple scenes simultaneously and link them together (similar to After Effects pre-compositions).
Professional Video Export: Powered by FFmpeg, supporting industry-standard codecs like ProRes (with Alpha), AV1, VP9, and MP4.
Constant Frame Rate (CFR) Support: Ensures exported videos maintain a stable frame rate for perfect synchronization in NLEs like Premiere Pro or Kdenlive.
Animated SVG (SMIL) Export: Native support for creating lightweight, responsive vector animations for the web.
Path & Text Effects: Non-destructive effects like “Follow Path,” “Trim Path,” and per-character text animations.
Graph Editor & Easing: A full Bezier curve editor for manual motion smoothing, plus a library of “pre-cooked” easing presets.
Command Palette: A modern Ctrl+Space workflow to instantly search for and apply any tool or effect.
Smart Layer Stack: Unique blend effects that simplify animating objects that need to “change” their layer depth over time.
SVG Optimizer: An internal “Optimize for Web” tool that cleans up SVG code during export without needing external software.
Frame Remapping: Dedicated tools for frame-by-frame animation cycles, allowing you to manually index through a sequence of shapes or images.
Resource Monitoring: Real-time RAM usage display in the status bar to track performance during complex project renders.
Key Links
You can learn more about Friction and see it in action in the video below.