Simple 2D Animation Software for UNIX-like OSes

BSDanimation asks: "I want to create slide based cartoon-like animations with speech bubbles and simple programmable 2D effects in a widely accepted format like MPEG or AVI. I have considered using Ming to code a Flash animation, but then decided against Flash and would prefer to stay away from such proprietary formats. Blender seems nice, but is too complex and a complete overkill. OpenOffice presentations seem promising, but I am not sure if it is possible to program effects and speech bubbles in it and export such presentations into a format other than Flash. What free UNIX-like OS based open source software is there for such simple 2D animation that would also allow me to distribute my animations commercially without any licensing restrictions?"

Comments

Blender is not Overkill

[ironfroggy]

There is no more reason to say that Blender is overkill for such a task than to say OpenGL is overkill for non-3D graphics. Just use a single view angel and don't move anything in the third coord. Southpark is even animated with such a tool. Besides, this will allow you to expand your effects in the future, should you ever find the need.