How to make animations/pictures for physics?

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Creating animations or descriptive images for physical models can be achieved using various software tools tailored for different types of visualizations. For 2-D animations, Adobe Flash is highly recommended due to its capabilities for interactive content and exporting animated images. Other suitable options include Microsoft Silverlight, Sun JavaFX, and SMIL for standards-oriented projects. Inkscape is ideal for creating 2-D still images. For GIF animations, Fireworks and even Photoshop can be utilized. For 3-D animations and stills, programs like POV-Ray, Blender3D, and Wings3D are effective choices. Specialized software like Celestia is available for specific applications, such as space simulations. Additionally, MATLAB and Mathematica offer extensive capabilities for creating animations through coding, allowing for a high degree of flexibility and customization. Various animations may originate from different sources, including kinematic analysis programs or merging plots from software like SigmaPlot or Origin.
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How do you make animations or descriptive pictures for physical models? They're not hand drawn and I'm pretty sure it's not done in photoshop. Is there special software for this? Here's a few pictures of what I mean:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ae/Stokes_sphere.svg/403px-Stokes_sphere.svg.png"
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Pendulum_animation.gif"
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/N-body_problem_(3).gif"
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/45/Double-compound-pendulum.gif"
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/imgmec/icyl3a.gif"
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/imgmec/amp1.gif"
ect...

Thanks in advance.
 
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I also suggest using Flash to demostrate animations.
 
Flash is great for that, and you can save it as an animated image within the publish settings. Another program that can animate GIFs is Fireworks. In fact it can even be done in Photoshop.

Plus with Flash, you can add user interaction.
 
For 2-D still images like the first one on your list Inkscape would be a good candidate.

For 2-D animations Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, or Sun JavaFX, or if you want to be standards-oriented SMIL. These are also good for the purpose of creating some interactive simulations or exhibits.

For 3-D stills and animations there's POV-Ray, Blender3D, Wings3D and a variety of other options out there.

And there are special pieces of software for special applications: Celestia, for example, for some types of scenes in space.
⚛​
 
All those images/animations are done with different programs. First one is hand drawn, probably adobe flash. Second and fourth one is from a kinematic analysis/demonstration program like "working model". I saw somebody do similar stuff using excel macros but i don't know how exactly. Third one is might be from a plotter like "sigma plot" or "origin", multiple plots have been merged to a gif animation using another program, flash can do that. The most flexible platform is MATLAB where you can do all this stuff with code.
 
Mathematica can do all of this.
 

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