Awesome-2D-Animation

A collection of tools, datasets and papers about inbetweening and 2D animation.

Feel free to create a PR or an issue. (Pull Request is preferred)

(The left two examples are from JoSTC and the right one is from ToonCrafter)

Outline

• 0. Survey
• 1. Software
• 2. Dataset
• 3. Raster-based Animation
• 4. Vector-based Animation
• 5. Differentiable Rendering + Optimization-based Animation

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0. Survey

Paper	Source	Code/Project Link
Generative AI for Cel-Animation: A Survey	arxiv 25.01	[code]

1. Software

software	software	software	software
Blender	OpenToonz	Harmony	TVPaint
Adobe Animate	Live2D	Cartoon Animator	CACANi

2. Dataset

Name	Paper	Source	Code/Project Link
CreativeFlow+	Creative Flow+ Dataset	CVPR 2019	[code]
ATD-12K	Deep animation video interpolation in the wild	CVPR 2021	[code]
AnimeRun	AnimeRun: 2D Animation Correspondence from Open Source 3D Movies	NeurIPS 2022	[code]
AnimeCeleb	AnimeCeleb: Large-Scale Animation CelebHeads Dataset for Head Reenactment	ECCV 2022	[code]
Sakuga-42M	Sakuga-42M Dataset: Scaling Up Cartoon Research	arxiv 24.05	[project]
Anita	Anita Dataset - An Industrial Animation Dataset	online 2024	[code]

3. Raster-based Animation

• Based on template deformation (e.g., ARAP)

Paper	Source	Code/Project Link
As-Rigid-As-Possible Shape Interpolation	SIGGRAPH 2000
As-Rigid-As-Possible Shape Manipulation	TOG 2005
As-Rigid-As-Possible Image Registration for Hand-drawn Cartoon Animations	NPAR 2009	[project]
Live Sketch: Video-driven Dynamic Deformation of Static Drawings	CHI 2018	[video]
ToonSynth: Example-Based Synthesis of Hand-Colored Cartoon Animations	SIGGRAPH 2018	[webpage]
A Method for Animating Children’s Drawings of the Human Figure	TOG 2023	[code] [project] [demo]
DrawingSpinUp: 3D Animation from Single Character Drawings	SIGGRAPH Asia 2024	[project] [code]
Skeleton-Driven Inbetweening of Bitmap Character Drawings	SIGGRAPH Asia 2024	[code] [webpage]

• Based on frame prediction with network

Type	Paper	Source	Code/Project Link
Line art	Optical Flow Based Line Drawing Frame Interpolation Using Distance Transform to Support Inbetweenings	ICIP 2019
Line art	Bridging the Gap: Sketch-Aware Interpolation Network for High-Quality Animation Sketch Inbetweening	ACM MM 2024	[code]
Colorized	Deep Sketch-Guided Cartoon Video Inbetweening	TVCG 2021	[code]
Colorized	Deep Animation Video Interpolation in the Wild	CVPR 2021	[code]
Colorized	Improving the Perceptual Quality of 2D Animation Interpolation	ECCV 2022	[code]
Colorized	CharacterGAN: Few-Shot Keypoint Character Animation and Reposing	WACV 2022	[code]
Colorized	ToonCrafter: Generative Cartoon Interpolation	SIGGRAPH Asia 2024	[code] [webpage]
Sketch	FlipSketch: Flipping Static Drawings to Text-Guided Sketch Animations	arxiv 24.11	[code]

4. Vector-based Animation

• Based on vertex or stroke correspondence

Paper	Source	Representation	Code/Project Link
Computer Aided Inbetweening	NPAR 2002	stroke
BetweenIT: An Interactive Tool for Tight Inbetweening	CGF 2010	stroke
DiLight: Digital light table – Inbetweening for 2D animations using guidelines	C&G 2017	stroke
Context-Aware Computer Aided Inbetweening	TVCG 2017	stroke
FTP-SC: Fuzzy Topology Preserving Stroke Correspondence	SCA 2018	stroke	[webpage] [video]
Stroke-Based Drawing and Inbetweening with Boundary Strokes	CGF 2021	stroke
Deep Geometrized Cartoon Line Inbetweening	ICCV 2023	vertex/point	[code]
Joint Stroke Tracing and Correspondence for 2D Animation	TOG 2024	stroke	[code] [webpage]
Thin-Plate Spline-based Interpolation for Animation Line Inbetweening	AAAI 2025	vertex/point	[code]

• Based on template matching

Paper	Source	Code/Project Link
Autocomplete Hand-drawn Animations	SIGGRAPH Asia 2015	[webpage] [video]
Non-linear Rough 2D Animation using Transient Embeddings	CGF 2023
Efficient Interpolation of Rough Line Drawings	PG 2023

5. Differentiable Rendering + Optimization-based Animation

Paper	Source	Representation	Code/Project Link
Sketch Video Synthesis	EG 2024	stroke	[code] [project]
Breathing Life Into Sketches Using Text-to-Video Priors	CVPR 2024	stroke	[code] [project]
AniClipart: Clipart Animation with Text-to-Video Priors	IJCV 2024	image	[project] [code]
Dynamic Typography: Bringing Text to Life via Video Diffusion Prior	arxiv 24.04	curve	[project] [code]