DragonBones

What is DragonBones?

DragonBones is a free skeletal animation tool for 2D games. Instead of drawing every frame, you attach artwork to a bone hierarchy, then pose and animate the skeleton. The editor was originally a Flash-era tool, and it was open sourced around 2014, with runtimes that let you play the animations in web, mobile and desktop games.

It is developed by Egret Technology, the company behind the Egret game engine, and it became especially popular among mobile and casual game studios in Asia. The workflow is familiar to anyone who has used Spine: build the skeleton, bind images, animate, and export.

Because the editor and runtimes are free, DragonBones remains a solid entry point for indie developers who want professional-style skeletal animation without spending money on a commercial license.

Key Features

• Bone-based skeletal animation with a visual editor
• Mesh deformation for cloth, faces and organic shapes
• Free-form deformation for subtle surface movement
• Inverse kinematics constraints for natural poses
• Slot and skin swapping for characters and equipment
• Full timeline with keyframes, curves and nested animations
• Open source runtimes for JavaScript, TypeScript, C++ and more
• Export pipelines for Unity, Cocos, Egret and other engines

How to get started

Download the editor from the official DragonBones site and install it on Windows or macOS. The editor ships with sample projects that show the rigging workflow from start to finish.

The basic flow is to import your character's images, arrange them under bones, bind the artwork, and animate. When you export, you get a data file plus the runtime library for your engine, and the samples include code examples for playing the animation.

• Download the DragonBones editor from the official website
• Open a sample project to learn the interface
• Import your character images and build the skeleton
• Bind the artwork to the bones and add mesh deformation
• Animate your character on the timeline
• Export and play the result with the runtime for your engine

Use cases

• 2D game characters, enemies and bosses
• UI and menu animation with bones
• Cutscenes and in-game dialogue animation
• Mobile and casual game animation at zero cost
• Web games using the JavaScript and TypeScript runtimes

Pricing and licensing

DragonBones is free. The editor costs nothing to download and use, and the runtimes are open source, so you can ship games with it without paying a licensing fee.

As with any free tool, it is worth reading the runtime licenses on the official site to confirm what is allowed for commercial releases, but the tool has a long history of use in shipped commercial games.

Pros and cons

The obvious win is the price: professional-style skeletal animation with open source runtimes at zero cost. The mesh deformation tools are capable, and the runtime coverage across web and mobile engines is broad.

The trade-offs are polish and momentum. The editor feels less refined than commercial rivals, the community is smaller, and development has slowed compared with paid tools, so you may need to rely on community help and older documentation.

Alternatives

• Spine: skeletal animation built for game sprites
• Rive: interactive vector animation that ships straight into apps
• Adobe Animate: frame and rig animation for web, games and video
• Toon Boom Harmony: the studio standard for 2D character animation