# Animux at a glance

> All programs on one screen, in the order of an animation production, on the Debian 12 base.

<div class="glance"><div class="glance-head"><p class="big"><b>83</b> tested programs</p><p>One animation pipeline, from the first sketch to the finished film.</p></div><div class="stages"><section class="stage"><h3><b>1</b> Drawing and storyboards <em>9</em></h3><div class="chips"><a class="chip" href="../software/krita.md" title="Professional digital painting with brushes, layers and a full frame-by-frame animation timeline. Works well with drawing tablets.">Krita <small>5.3</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/gimp-inkscape.md" title="Photo and image editing: retouch renders, paint textures, cut out backgrounds, batch-convert images.">GIMP <small>3.2</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/gimp-inkscape.md" title="Vector drawing: logos, titles, character designs and backgrounds that stay sharp at any size.">Inkscape <small>1.4</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/gimp-inkscape.md" title="Distraction-free painting on an endless canvas, for sketches and concept art.">MyPaint <small>2.0</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/gimp-inkscape.md" title="Pixel-art editor for game sprites and retro graphics.">GrafX2 <small>2.8</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/gimp-inkscape.md" title="Very small, fast paint program for pixel art and quick edits.">mtPaint <small>3.40</small></a><a class="chip" href="../tutorials/command-line-rendering.md" title="Command-line image tools: resize, convert or add text to hundreds of images at once.">ImageMagick and G&#x27;MIC</a><a class="chip" href="../software/storyboard-publishing.md" title="Page layout for storyboards, posters, comics and portfolios, with PDF export.">Scribus <small>1.5</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/storyboard-publishing.md" title="Read PDFs; merge, reorder and rotate their pages.">PDF Arranger and Document Viewer</a></div></section><section class="stage"><h3><b>2</b> 2D animation <em>5</em></h3><div class="chips"><a class="chip" href="../software/opentoonz.md" title="The studio 2D animation program (the open-source Toonz used by Studio Ghibli): hand-drawn and cut-out animation with the Xsheet timesheet, scan cleanup, ink and paint, and a node-based FX schematic.">OpenToonz</a><a class="chip" href="../software/synfig.md" title="2D vector animation with automatic in-between frames (tweening) and bone rigs for cut-out characters.">Synfig Studio <small>1.5</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/pencil2d.md" title="The simplest way to make hand-drawn, frame-by-frame animation with onion skin. Great first program for children and beginners.">Pencil2D <small>0.6</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/pencil2d.md" title="2D animation for schools and beginners: draw, tween and export short cartoons.">TupiTube</a><a class="chip" href="../software/stopmotion.md" title="Take pictures with a webcam or camera, frame by frame, with onion skin to line up the next shot, then export a video.">Stopmotion <small>0.8</small></a></div></section><section class="stage"><h3><b>3</b> 3D animation <em>9</em></h3><div class="chips"><a class="chip" href="../software/blender.md" title="The complete 3D studio: modelling, sculpting, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering (Cycles and EEVEE), compositing and video editing.">Blender <small>5.2</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/makehuman.md" title="Creates realistic human characters, ready to animate, directly inside Blender. Switched on automatically.">MPFB <small>2.0</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/blender.md" title="Makes Blender work like Autodesk Maya for animators trained on it: Maya hotkeys, marking menus, shelf, Channel Box and layout. Off until you switch it on.">Maya Workflow Kit for Blender</a><a class="chip" href="../software/makehuman.md" title="Stand-alone character creator: shape a human body with sliders, add clothes, a skeleton and poses, then export for Blender or games.">MakeHuman II <small>2.0</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/other-3d.md" title="Precise CAD modelling for props, sets and objects that must have exact sizes.">FreeCAD <small>0.20</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/other-3d.md" title="Build 3D objects by writing a short description instead of drawing them.">OpenSCAD <small>2021.01</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/other-3d.md" title="Small, friendly polygon modeller, good for learning how 3D meshes are built.">Wings 3D <small>2.2</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/other-3d.md" title="Clean up, repair and simplify 3D scans and heavy meshes.">MeshLab <small>2020.09</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/other-3d.md" title="Viewer for mathematical 3D shapes (OFF files).">Geomview <small>1.9</small></a></div></section><section class="stage"><h3><b>4</b> Lighting and rendering <em>6</em></h3><div class="chips"><a class="chip" href="../software/renderers.md" title="Blender&#x27;s own renderers. Cycles is realistic (path tracing); EEVEE is fast (real time). Start here.">Cycles and EEVEE</a><a class="chip" href="../software/renderers.md" title="Classic ray tracer: you describe the scene in a text file and POV-Ray draws it. The menu entry asks for a .pov file and shows the picture.">POV-Ray <small>3.7</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/renderers.md" title="Physically based production renderer. Command line only on Animux (its editor window needs Python 2.7, which Debian 12 no longer has).">appleseed</a><a class="chip" href="../software/renderers.md" title="Unbiased physically based renderer, good for realistic light, glass and caustics. Used from Python scripts.">LuxCoreRender</a><a class="chip" href="../software/renderers.md" title="Research renderer, also able to compute how a picture changes when the scene changes (differentiable rendering).">Mitsuba 3 <small>3.9</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/renderers.md" title="The renderer from the book &quot;Physically Based Rendering&quot;. Ideal for learning how renderers work.">pbrt-v4</a></div></section><section class="stage"><h3><b>5</b> Pipeline formats <em>8</em></h3><div class="chips"><a class="chip" href="../software/gaffer.md" title="Node-based tool for look development, lighting and scene assembly, used in film studios. Renders with Cycles. Includes Cortex, OSL, OpenUSD and Alembic tools.">Gaffer <small>1.7</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/pipeline-formats.md" title="Universal Scene Description: the scene format shared by Blender, Houdini, Maya and game engines. usdview shows a USD file; usdcat, usdchecker, usdtree inspect and convert.">OpenUSD tools</a><a class="chip" href="../software/pipeline-formats.md" title="Alembic stores baked animation (moving geometry) to move it between programs.">Alembic tools</a><a class="chip" href="../software/pipeline-formats.md" title="Language for writing your own materials (shaders); works in Blender Cycles and Gaffer.">Open Shading Language</a><a class="chip" href="../software/pipeline-formats.md" title="EXR is the high-quality image format of film work (many layers, real light values). oiiotool converts, resizes and combines images; exrheader shows what is inside.">OpenEXR and OpenImageIO tools</a><a class="chip" href="../software/pipeline-formats.md" title="Colour management: keeps colours identical across Blender, Krita, Gaffer and your screen.">OpenColorIO tools</a><a class="chip" href="../software/pipeline-formats.md" title="Format for smoke, fire, clouds and other volumes.">OpenVDB tools <small>10.0</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/pipeline-formats.md" title="A ready Python 3.11 with Mitsuba, LuxCore, OpenUSD, OpenEXR, OpenColorIO, OpenImageIO, MaterialX and NumPy installed together.">Animux VFX Python <small>2026.10</small></a></div></section><section class="stage"><h3><b>6</b> Render farm <em>2</em></h3><div class="chips"><a class="chip" href="../software/flamenco.md" title="Blender&#x27;s official render farm: one Manager hands out frames, every other computer runs a Worker. Has a web page to watch the jobs.">Flamenco <small>3.9</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/flamenco.md" title="The small Perl render farm that came with the original Animux. Kept for compatibility; use Flamenco for new work.">Farmerjoe</a></div></section><section class="stage"><h3><b>7</b> Sound <em>9</em></h3><div class="chips"><a class="chip" href="../software/audio.md" title="Professional recording studio: record voices, mix many tracks, add effects, master the soundtrack.">Ardour <small>7.3</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/audio.md" title="Record and clean up voice-overs and sound effects. The easiest sound editor.">Audacity <small>3.2</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/audio.md" title="Make music with built-in instruments, beats and loops.">LMMS <small>1.2</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/audio.md" title="Drum machine: click patterns together to make rhythms.">Hydrogen</a><a class="chip" href="../software/audio.md" title="Write sheet music and hear it played back.">MuseScore 3 <small>3.2</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/audio.md" title="MIDI and audio sequencer for composing a score.">Rosegarden <small>22.12</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/audio.md" title="Software instruments, a guitar amplifier and an on-screen piano keyboard.">Synthesizers</a><a class="chip" href="../software/audio.md" title="See sound as a picture, analyse speech for lip sync, convert between formats.">Sound analysis and conversion</a><a class="chip" href="../software/audio.md" title="Choose speakers and microphones, set volumes, connect audio programs to each other.">Audio setup</a></div></section><section class="stage"><h3><b>8</b> Edit and delivery <em>13</em></h3><div class="chips"><a class="chip" href="../software/kdenlive.md" title="The recommended video editor on Animux: cut shots together, add music, titles, transitions and effects, then export MP4.">Kdenlive <small>22.12</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/video-tools.md" title="Very simple video editor: drag clips onto the timeline and export.">OpenShot <small>2.6</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/video-tools.md" title="Powerful, professional-style editor with colour grading, motion tracking and many effects. Takes time to learn.">Cinelerra-GG</a><a class="chip" href="../software/video-tools.md" title="Quick cutting, filtering and re-encoding of a single video file.">Avidemux <small>2.8</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/video-tools.md" title="Convert a finished video for YouTube, phones or the web with ready presets.">HandBrake <small>1.6</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/video-tools.md" title="The command-line Swiss army knife for video and sound: turn image sequences into movies, convert, cut, record the screen.">FFmpeg <small>5.1</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/video-tools.md" title="Combine video, several audio tracks and subtitles into one .mkv file without re-encoding.">MKVToolNix <small>74.0</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/video-tools.md" title="Write and time subtitles for your film.">Subtitle Editor and Gnome Subtitles</a><a class="chip" href="../software/video-tools.md" title="Professional player for image sequences and EXR renders: play frames at the right speed, compare versions, check colours.">DJV <small>3.7</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/video-tools.md" title="Plays every video and sound file.">VLC <small>3.0</small></a><span class="chip" title="Simple picture viewers. Double-click any image in the file manager.">Ristretto and Eye of GNOME</span><a class="chip" href="../software/system-tools.md" title="Burn data, audio and video DVDs or CDs (for example a backup of a project).">K3b <small>22.12</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/system-tools.md" title="Snapshots of the system, so you can roll back after a bad update (installed systems only).">Timeshift <small>22.11</small></a></div></section><section class="stage"><h3><b>9</b> AI assistants <em>9</em></h3><div class="chips"><a class="chip" href="../software/upscayl.md" title="Makes small or blurry images 2× to 4× bigger and sharper with AI models, offline. Needs a Vulkan graphics card for good speed.">Upscayl <small>2.15</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/ai-tools.md" title="Speech to text: transcripts and subtitles (SRT, VTT) from audio or video, in many languages, offline after the model download.">Whisper</a><a class="chip" href="../software/ai-tools.md" title="Removes the background of photos and frames with an AI model; writes PNG with transparency. About 1 GB model download on first use.">rembg <small>2.0</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/ai-tools.md" title="Runs chat language models offline. Not on the ISO: install with sudo animux-install-local-ai --ollama (1.5 GB).">Ollama</a><a class="chip" href="../software/ai-tools.md" title="Stable Diffusion image generation with a node editor in the browser. Not on the ISO: install with sudo animux-install-local-ai --comfyui (--cuda for NVIDIA, --rocm for AMD). Models go in ~/ComfyUI/models/checkpoints.">ComfyUI</a><a class="chip" href="../software/ai-agents.md" title="Let an AI assistant work in Blender, GIMP 3.2, Krita 5.3 and Inkscape 1.4 through MCP: offline with a local Ollama model (animux-mcp agent) or with Claude Code.">MCP servers</a><a class="chip" href="../software/ai-tools.md" title="Video with sound from text or a picture, made in Lightricks&#x27; cloud with an API key (animux-ltx-api key). Also an MCP server for AI agents.">LTX</a><a class="chip" href="../software/ai-tools.md" title="LTX-2 video with sound on your own NVIDIA card (24-32 GB) in ComfyUI; about 40 GB of models.">LTX-2 local</a><a class="chip" href="../agents/command-reference.md" title="Ready to run your own image and machine-learning scripts; use python3 -m venv for extra libraries.">Python for AI and data</a></div></section><section class="stage"><h3><b>10</b> System and tools <em>13</em></h3><div class="chips"><a class="chip" href="../desktop/files.md" title="Browse, copy, rename and open files; USB drives appear here automatically.">Thunar File Manager <small>4.18</small></a><a class="chip" href="../desktop/files.md" title="Find files by name, and see which folders fill up your disk.">Catfish and Disk Usage Analyzer</a><a class="chip" href="../desktop/tour.md" title="Web browser. Also shows this guide.">Firefox ESR</a><a class="chip" href="../desktop/terminal.md" title="Type commands. Only needed for a few tasks; this guide gives every command in full.">Xfce Terminal</a><a class="chip" href="../software/video-tools.md" title="Take a picture of the screen or a window. For screen recording see the FFmpeg command.">Screenshot</a><a class="chip" href="../desktop/add-software.md" title="Install, update and remove software with a list and check boxes.">Synaptic Package Manager <small>0.91</small></a><a class="chip" href="../software/system-tools.md" title="See, format and partition disks and USB sticks. Careful: these can erase data.">GParted and Disks</a><a class="chip" href="../software/system-tools.md" title="Run other systems inside Animux, or packaged services.">Virtual machines and containers</a><a class="chip" href="../desktop/add-software.md" title="Install newer versions of programs from Flathub (for example Krita, OBS Studio, OpenToonz).">Flatpak <small>1.14</small></a><a class="chip" href="../help/self-test.md" title="Checks in a few minutes that the renderers and main programs work on your computer, and saves every test picture.">Animux Self-Test <small>1.0</small></a><a class="chip" href="../help/self-test.md" title="Small example files for each renderer and format, to open and learn from.">Animux Sample Scenes <small>1.0</small></a><a class="chip" href="../agents/overview.md" title="This guide, offline. Also at http://127.0.0.1:8765/ for programs and AI agents.">Animux Guide <small>1.0</small></a><a class="chip" href="../desktop/add-software.md" title="Opens the Blackmagic download page for DaVinci Resolve, which Animux may not include for licence reasons.">Install DaVinci Resolve</a></div></section></div><div class="base"><strong>Debian 12 “bookworm”</strong><span>The stable base: Debian 12 bookworm, Linux 6.1, Xfce 4.18. Debian supports each release for years (Debian 12 with security updates until June 2028), and Animux adds current creative software from its own repository.</span></div></div>


Point at a program to see what it does; a click opens its page where there is one. The [software list](../software/index.md) has every program with its command, and [Versions](../about/versions.md) has every version number.