SOFTWARE
Here's a list of programs for animators. First I'll tell you about commercial software, and then I'll show you some cheap, affordable or free software.

2D ANIMATION
DigiCel Flipbook 5/5
From the Digicel website:
"Simply put, FlipBook is the fastest, easiest and most affordable 2D animation software you can buy. It does everything you need to produce broadcast quality animated movies as good or better than what you see on TV.
2D Animation - FlipBook is the only 2D animation software designed from the ground up to do 2D animation the way animators are used to doing it. That's why professional animators at every major studio demand FlipBook."

I love this software, because it's really easy-to-use and pretty high-quality.
From the makers of AXA. Don Bluth's weapon of choice is Flipbook!
NOW AVAILABLE FOR MAC OSX, BETA TEST-VERSION FREE FOR DOWNLOAD NOW!

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ToonBoom Technologies 4/5
From the Toonboom website:
"Harmony - The leading enterprise animation software solution for studios
Toon Boom Harmony enables studios to produce digital and traditional animation of the highest quality with powerful features, such as morphing, inverse kinematics and its "glue" effect. Advanced drawing and asset management tools combined with a seamless, integrated workflow make Toon Boom Harmony the solution of choice for any studio that aims to save significant overhead costs while adding value to their animations.

Opus - The leading enterprise animation software solution for traditional studios
A complete animation solution, Opus is designed to handle projects of any size or level of complexity. Opus reaches far beyond digital ink-and-paint, encompassing integrated workflow, powerful sceneplanning, sophisticated effects, compositing tools and seamless 2D and 3D integration, all in a configurable user interface.

Solo - The leading stand-alone animation software solution for studios
Toon Boom Solo is the leading stand-alone software solution for studios to create high quality animations for film, video, television, games, web sites, mobile devices, training applications and more. Solo offers a new level of creativity, efficiency and simplified workflow to produce animation of the highest quality.

Toon Boom Studio - The leading animation software solution for individuals
Toon Boom Studio™ puts powerful creative tools in your hands and increases your productivity so that you can focus on what counts - your story, your characters and your vision. With optimized output to Macromedia® Flash™ and QuickTime®, you can easily output your animations to the web, video, wireless and beyond.

Toon Boom Studio Express - The leading animation software solution for beginners
Easy-to-use, Toon Boom Studio Express, the value-priced solution, is a must-have animation tool for all your creative projects. Use it to create great animations for your corporate and personal web sites; Flash banner ads, Interactive projects and games; videos, PDAs and phones; and anywhere else you want to add eye-catching animations!"
Click here for comparison chart
I'm giving it a 4/5, because it takes time to get to know the programs, and they are pretty expensive. Relatively though, Toonboom Studio is affordable, and it's best for freelance work. Studio Express is an entry level program, and in v3 they do have the possibilty for import and scanning. It's limited to two pegs, one camera, one scene and 1,000 frames. More than enough to get started.

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RETAS!PRO
From the RETAS!PRO website:
"RETAS!PRO is an award-winning digital animation production package, which replaces all the labor-intensive processes of conventional animation production. RETAS!PRO follows the conventional process of animation production with a combination of 5 tools which replace the traditional processes such as drawing, pencil testing, tracing, painting, effects and shooting (camera). It handles scanned 2D drawings, live video and 3D computer graphics as simply as cels. It offers a wide range of uses including: film, video, games & multimedia."

It takes ages to get a hang of it, but now I finally understand a bit. I can see it's powerful. It's the leading anime production software in Japan. It comes in a few packages, each for another part of production (compositing, ink & paint, rendering, etc.). It costs a hell of a lot of money, but I heard about an entry level program called RETAS! Lite Debut, I stripped down version of it, priced around $100. It's only available in Japanese for now, but let's hope they translate it!

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DV Toonz
From the Toonz website:
"Toonz 5.0 Harlequin is a software born from Digital Video’s experience and knowledge of traditional animation to meet the evolution of animation creative and technical standards. Toonz 5.0 Harlequin integrates vector drawings in its traditional workflow based on raster drawings to allow you to step into paperless animation.
In a brand new user-friendly environment, animators can now both scan hand-made drawings, and draw from scratch and animate vector drawings; manage super-sized palettes and painting animation levels; compose scenes; move and animate animation levels over background according to the xsheet; move objects like pegbars, cameras and table; add special FX and render out composited sequences by using a render farm."

Haven't been able to test it, I'm going to ask for a demo version. People say it's a lot like Toonboom software. Simplified version available, The TAB.

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The Tab (Toonz Animation Board)
The Tab, or Toonz Animation Board is a simplified version of Toonz. It comes in Tab Lite version, The Tab, and Tab Pro.
In itself, The Tab is a great idea, and good software. The Lite version is very limited, and I don't recommend it. Also, they keep on pumping the price. First it Lite was $49, The Tab was $99, and Pro was $149. Reasonable prices. Then they raised it to $99, $149, and $349, or something. Now it's even higher, and I predict it will rise even more.
Good software, but not customer friendly people.

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oint: Plastic Animation Paper

Simulates a real animation stand. Made for use with a tablet. More info later.
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Cambridge Animation Systems ANIMO
If your have every used this software, please review it.

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BUDGET SOFTWARE!!!

MonkeyJam 4/5
Free pencil-test/stopmotion software. Extremely easy to use. It's plain fun playing around with it. Doesn't support opaque layers or camera moves, but it is excellent software, it's free, and, well... it's free!
NOTE: Hasn't been updated in quite a while. Still a good program, but it could use some new features in my opinion.

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Pencil
5/5
Free traditional animation program. Traditional in that, it is written to make traditional animation, but it supports both bitmap images and vector Flash drawings. It's a bit buggy, and not finished (as I'm writing this it is at v0.4.3b) but it is functional, pretty professional, but most of all it's free. Truly professional stuff can be done with it.

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Tapptoons
Excellent ink n paint program, very affordable. Everything you need is here, but the fill tool doesn't have tolerance settings, and you have to be sure of what you're doing. $49, also comes in free penciltest version.

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Project Dogwaffle v2.1b
Very affordable, very easy to use. I highly recommend it, though it doesn't have a natural workflow, and can't handle large scenes.

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KToon ?????
KToon is an open source program, which means that everybody can download and use the sourcecode. So far only available for Linux, Mac port is almost done, and Windows is on it's way.
From the screenshots it seems to be a combination of the Macromedia Flash interface and Toonboom Studio. .swf export available.
More information later.

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