Zoetrope

Animate, script and publish to the web.

Zoetrope is a free, open-source animation studio in the spirit of Flash. Draw vector art, animate it on a timeline, make it interactive with JavaScript, and export one HTML file that plays anywhere, even offline.

Download Try it in your browser Read the manual

For macOS, Windows and Linux.

The Zoetrope editor: tools on the left, the stage in the middle, properties and the library on the right, and the timeline below.

Made with Zoetrope, playing right here

These are real exports, the same single HTML files the app produces, embedded in this page. Click to start.

Spring in Zoetrope. Nested symbols, eased tweens, movie clips on their own clocks, text in an embedded font and a streamed soundtrack. The ▶ button pauses and resumes it with a three-line script.
Bee Catcher. A complete game in one frame script: arrow keys, collisions, a score, a timer and a restart button. Click inside, then use the arrow keys. Build one yourself.

Everything you need for 2D animation

Shapes drawn with the ellipse, polygon and text tools

Vector drawing

Rectangles, ellipses, stars, lines, a Bézier pen and a smoothing pencil. Gradients, strokes and dashes, bitmaps, and precise anchor editing, with snapping, rulers and guides.

The timeline with onion skinning showing earlier and later frames

Timeline and tweens

Layers, folders and masks, keyframes, motion and shape tweens with eased or custom Bézier timing, and onion skinning. Frame labels let scripts jump around.

Editing a symbol in place, with the rest of the scene dimmed

Symbols that nest

Graphics follow their parent's timeline; movie clips run on their own clocks; buttons have Up, Over, Down and Hit states. Edit any of them in place.

Typing text on the stage with the text tool

Text and sound

Real typography (kerning, ligatures, wrapping) from fonts embedded in the project, so text looks the same everywhere. Event and stream sounds stay in sync with the timeline.

A frame script in the script editor

Scripting

Modern JavaScript with a familiar API: stop(), gotoAndPlay("label"), bee.x += 5, onEnterFrame, hitTestObject, Key.isDown. Scripts run sandboxed, so a bug can't hang the app.

The export dialog

Export anywhere

One self-contained HTML file that works offline, or a page plus an asset pack for big projects. Letterbox, fill or fixed scaling, and an embed snippet. It plays exactly like the preview, frame for frame.

Why it plays the same everywhere

Everything that decides what a frame looks like (the scene graph, tweens, text layout, the runtime, script semantics) lives in one Rust core compiled to WebAssembly. The editor's preview and every exported page run that same core, and every release checks frame-by-frame fingerprints between them.

Projects are plain, versioned JSON with your images, fonts and sounds embedded, so a file opens the same way years from now. Unsaved work is autosaved and offered back after a crash. Undo covers every operation.

Download

Free, open source, no account needed.

Linux

64-bit, WebKitGTK 4.1 (Ubuntu 22.04+, Debian 12+, Fedora 37+): AppImage, .deb or .rpm.

AppImage

Web

No install: the full editor in Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari 16.4+. Projects save as downloads.

Open the web editor

The installers aren't code-signed yet, so the first launch shows a warning: on macOS, right-click the app and choose Open; on Windows, choose More info → Run anyway. Install guide · All releases and checksums